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External Load Volume and Variability Differentially Relate to Internal Load in Soccer

MCCOLLUM TB, BROJANAC AP, KEEFE MS, DUNN R, Sekiguchi Y. · Research Square · 2026

Researchers tracked 35 semi-professional soccer players over two 8-week competitive seasons with GPS and heart-rate monitors, comparing different ways of expressing external workload (weekly totals, monotony, and week-to-week percent change for distance, accelerations, decelerations, and high-speed running) against internal load measured by session RPE and TRIMP. The abstract reports that weekly accumulated total distance was significantly associated with both accumulated session RPE and TRIMP, but the remaining results are cut off.
Takeaway: Track weekly accumulated total distance as a simple external-load marker that tends to line up with how hard training actually feels and taxes you.
Abstract (source)

Abstract

Purpose: To compare how derivatives of external training load (TL) metrics relate to perceptual and physiological internal TL in semi-professional soccer players.

Methods: Thirty-five male semi-professional soccer players were monitored across two consecutive eight-week competitive seasons using 10-Hz GPS units with integrated heart-rate monitoring. External TL metrics, including total distance (TD), acceleration count (AccNumber), deceleration count (DeccNumber), and high-speed distance (HSD), were expressed as weekly accumulated volume (acc), training monotony (m), and week-to-week percent change (P_). Internal TL was assessed using weekly accumulated session rating of perceived exertion (accsRPE) and training impulse (accTRIMP). Linear mixed-effects models examined associations between standardized external TL derivatives and internal TL outcomes.

Results: accTD was significantly associated with both accsRPE and accTRIMP (p

Primary studyVelocity-Based & Technology
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