Paul Laursen on high-intensity interval training

HIIT can be a powerful fitness tool – but only if you use it the right way. In this Science Explained session, Professor Paul Laursen discusses how to go about designing a HIIT programme, and how to tailor it to the specific demands of football. His presentation is followed by a Q&A, hosted by FIFA’s Dr Paul Bradley.

Part 1: Designing HIIT sessions: context is key
HIIT consists of repeated bouts of high-intensity work in an athlete’s “red zone,” separated by periods of relative or complete rest. While HIIT can only ever be one piece of a wider fitness “puzzle”, it can be a very useful tool if tailored appropriately to your sport. Therefore, the process of designing a HIIT programme should start by assessing a sport’s demands. For example, football requires less power than weightlifting, but more speed endurance, and these requirements have to be reflected in training.

Part 2: Targets and levers: tailoring your session
The good news for practitioners is that HIIT offers at least a dozen different levers you can pull to hit specific fitness targets, the most powerful being the intensity of the work and the length of the recovery period. In this part of the presentation, Professor Laursen explains exactly how the individual variables affect anaerobic, aerobic and neuromuscular loads on athletes, and how getting the balance right can allow coaches to train players hard while ensuring their batteries are fully charged on matchday.

Part 3: The five HIIT formats
Finally, Professor Laursen discusses each of the five recognised HIIT formats in detail. Each individual format has the potential to sharpen specific aspects of an athlete’s performance, As the demands of modern football continue to increase, these HIIT formats can be vital for preparing players for match-play. How you use them depends on what you are training for;  for instance, sprint interval training (repeated 30-second bursts of all-out effort) is more common in ice hockey than in football, while the principles of intense small-sided games will be familiar to any football coach.

01:05
One of the most consistent findings in research literature on the demands of football is that demands are highly dependent on position and tactical role. How can we tailor HIIT for different roles within a team?

04:31
A one-size-fits-all approach almost never works. How can we individualise HIIT for players within the same squad with different requirements?

05:26
The schedule is always a big challenge for practitioners – from their point of view, there are always too many games and not enough time. How can you optimise your HIIT training to take account of a packed schedule and reduce the risk of injury to players?

08:20
Which HIIT formats are most effective for improving things like repeated sprint ability? What is the best way of choosing between different formats?

10:10
How can practitioners use the external load data they routinely collect to optimise HIIT sessions in real time?

11:35 
Is HIIT more effective in a running-based drill, or can you still get the physical and metabolic loads required from football-specific exercises and small-sided games?

14:18
What are the key signs that a player is not responding well to a HIIT load, and how can coaches adjust that load to help?

16:40 
How do you see AI and other emerging technologies shaping the future of HIIT? Can you tell us a bit about the tools available to practitioners at the moment?

19:45
What are the take-home messages from your presentation for practitioners in football?