Abstract
Training intensity (TI) monitoring has become a necessary aspect of professional soccer training. This study systematically reviewed the original investigations that have reported values regarding TI across macrocycles, mesocycles, and one-, two-, and three-match day (MD) microcycles in professional soccer, to analyze TI variations among months, weeks, and training sessions, respectively. A systematic review of PubMed, and FECYT (Web of Sciences, CCC, DIIDW, KJD, MEDLINE, RSCI, and SCIELO) was performed according to the PRISMA guidelines. The articles were included following these criteria: (i) professional soccer players, (ii) players monitored for TI values, (iii) TI distribution in, at least, 3 days, weeks, or months, (iv) variables related to TI (physical/physiological), and (v) original studies. The quality assessment of included articles was done using MINORS checklist. From the 473 studies initially identified, 19 were fully reviewed, and their outcome measures were extracted and analyzed. In microcycles, most articles showed lower values in MD+1 and progressively incremented until MD-4 or MD-3. As the number of days between matches decreased, TI values decreased, with values in MD-1 lower than 50% of MD’s intensity, or even values <50% in all sessions between matches in 3 MD microcycles. The variability standard in mesocycles was less clear. In macrocycles, TI was greater in the preseason than the values in the last stages of the in-season period. In conclusion, coaches may design a post-match recovery strategy followed by an increase in intensity until MD-3. Regarding mesocycles, a week-to-week TI prescription was the most common due to the different demands that are experienced during a match with different contextual factors. Finally, despite slight variations in intensity/volume between preseason and in-season periods during macrocycles, overall TI is similar for both time periods. However, training volume is usually reduced while intensity is kept high.
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