Tapering Among Endurance Athletes

Tapering will attempt to reduce progressively both the psychological and physiological stress that comes with daily training when you are preparing for an athletic competition. Tapering will cause a decrease in cortisol levels (Hausswirthet al., 2014). When you have high cortisol levels, it could leads to suppress the immune system and thus open door for illness. You should consume foods with excess carbohydrates since they are broken down and stored as glycogen in the liver and muscles. When you taper, the levels of glycogen in the muscles increases and thus you get energy for final competition thus resulting in improved performance. Ideally, you should increase intensity to improve the muscular power through the increasing of the muscle fiber sizes (Tønnessen et al., 2014). Also, one can increase intensity with lowered training volume and produce god results. You ought to maintain training intensity if not increased slightly during a taper. 

Your training frequency should be four or more workout weekly rather than a reduction of the frequency to produce good results. You should have high training volume to avoid developing negative mood and slower pace. Training volume ought to be reduced by sixty to eighty percent. As an athlete, you should maintain high training frequency to avoid detraining. The training frequency should not go below twenty percent. Tapers can last between one to four weeks but you should bear in mind that the distance of the sport influences the duration of the taper. Thus, if the distance to be raced is longer, the tape will be longer. Therefore, it is essential for you to believe the importance of the taper so that it can be effective (Plews, Laursen, Stanley, Kilding, & Buchheit, 2013).