Revisiting dose–response relationships between heart rate zones, TRIMPs, and aerobic-related physiological and performance markers in elite team sports

Buchheit, M, Akubat, I, Ellis, Matthew, Campos, M, Rabbani, A, Castagna, C and Malone, S (2025) Revisiting dose–response relationships between heart rate zones, TRIMPs, and aerobic-related physiological and performance markers in elite team sports. Sport Performance & Science Reports (SPSR), 1 (269).

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Abstract

Since the early 2000s, HR monitoring was the cornerstone of load monitoring in (team) sports (Achten 2003, Del-lal 2012, Figure 1). However, as the field has shifted from the physiologically grounded approach of sport science 1.0 to the data-driven model of sport science 2.0 (Buchheit & Laursen 2024), many practitioners have turned to GPS and other wearable technologies. While GPS can provide helpful data on external load, it offers no information on metabolic load (Buchheit & Simpson 2017; Buchheit & Hader 2025). Unfortunately, many practitioners still fall short in using appropriate tools and metrics to monitor both metabolic and neuromuscular load (i.e., muscle activation levels and tendon strain, Buchheit & Laursen 2013), resulting in an incomplete understanding of training demands (Buchheit & Hader 2025). Replacing HR with GPS has not resolved the essential need for tracking internal, metabolic, and cardiovascular load. Attempts to use GPS-derived metabolic power (Osgnach 2010) as a substitute for HR have also proven inadequate, as the measure fails to accurately capture systemic metabolic load in team-sport contexts (Buchheit & Simpson 2017). This distinction is essential, as metabolic and neuromuscular load are the two primary sources of physical load in team sports, and each requires a specific monitoring approach (Buchheit & Laursen 2013, Buchheit & Hader 2025). In practice, for metabolic and cardiovascular load, HR remains the only usable proxy for cardiopulmonary stress, despite its limitations. This paper aims to re-establish the value of HR monitoring by acknowledging its limitations and focusing on how best to leverage the meaningful information it can provide. By focusing on the dose-response relationship using meaningful adaptation measures, such as aerobic-related physiological and performance markers (Buchheit 2025), we can identify the mini mal effective dose of training needed to maintain or improve fitness and recognize the point of diminishing returns (Spiering 2021). This has direct applications both for healthy and injured athletes during their return to play journey.

Item Type:	Article
Depositing User:	JISCRouter
Date Deposited:	18 Feb 2026 11:06
Last Modified:	18 Feb 2026 11:06
URI:	https://marjon.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/18086

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