Association between aerobic fitness and glycolytic metabolism in adult male professional football players

Objective: Analyze the association between aerobic physical fitness and glycolytic metabolism in adult male professional Chilean soccer players. As a secondary objective, examine differences between playing positions. Methods: The sample consists of 31 adult professional footballers from a Chilean Primera B club. Aerobic fitness was determined through the Yo -Yo intermittent endurance level I test. A lactate sample was obtained after its completion to analyze the implication of glycolytic metabolism. The Pearson test was performed to identify associations between variables, and the one-way ANOVA test was conducted to analyze differences between playing positions. Results: There is no relationship between aerobic fitness and glycolytic metabolism (r=0.165 and p=0.375). Similarly, there are no differences between positions for aerobic fitness (p=0.64) and lactate production (p=0.75). Conclusion: The performance in oxygen-dependent efforts is not related to glycolytic capacity for this sample of professional footballers. Therefore, it is not possible to project influences between the variables, nor based on the playing position.