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As you progress, make a note of times when you felt you had quality sleep or did not get enough sleep. Some
results of poor sleep can include:
1. Trouble focusing on tasks.
2. Increased hunger for sugary or fatty comfort foods.
3. Inability to meet physical performance goals.
4. Feelings of sadness, loneliness or anger that are inappropriate to what is going on at the time.
5. Problems interpreting situations.
Mindfully improving sleep habits and reecting on the impact of your changes will assist in managing your own
sleep routine as you progress toward AFSW training and beyond. If you are specically concerned about your
personal sleeping abilities or habits, see a physician. For additional information on sleep, nutrition, and mental
preparation please see link to HPRC in Appendix B.
Section 6: Energy Systems Development/Ruck
Energy System Development (ESD) is all- inclusive of activities with a tness or work capacity focus, like running,
biking, or rowing. For running events, wear appropriate running shoes to improve efciency, mechanics, and
reduce the risk of injury.
The human body has three main elements, or pathways, of the body’s total energy system. It is important to
understand that, though there are distinct portions of the energy system (metabolism), they all work together
during exercise or at rest to help your body accomplish work and sustain your vital bodily functions. How hard you
are working (intensity), the length of time you are working (duration), and the type of work you are doing (mode) all
contribute to inuence which portion(s) of your metabolism is primarily contributing to energy synthesis.
High-intensity activities, such as sprinting, lifting heavy weights, and jumps/throws are primarily driven by the
phosphagen energy pathway. Most commonly, these are called power activities, because they require high
amounts of effort, an intent to move as fast as possible, and cause a great deal of energy transfer between our
stored energy reserves and the muscles being utilized. Consider the Heart Rate Guided Physical Training (HRPT)
and RPE/RIR charts above; high-intensity, phosphagen pathway exercise would t most appropriately in the
orange and red bands of those resources. The phosphagen energy pathway relies primarily on carbohydrates
(glucose/glycogen) and creatine-phosphate to drive exercise performance – usually for only a few seconds at
a time. When you do not consume adequate carbohydrates, have been exercising for a long duration, are not
adequately recovered, or are otherwise not prepared for training, it may be difcult to incorporate these types of
efforts. High intensity training requires consistent attention to detail.
Another energy pathway is often referred to as the intermediate energy pathway, anaerobic glycolysis, glycolytic,
or sometimes the lactic-acid energy pathway. This energy pathway primarily contributes during intermediate
to high-intensity exercise when the effort is not near-enough to maximal intensity (around RPE 6-7), you have
exceeded the body’s ability to depend on the phosphagen system (6-30 seconds of high-intensity effort), or the
intensity has surpassed your aerobic abilities. Examples of these types of activities would be running 400m for
most trainees, a fast-paced calisthenics session, or a weight training session without sufcient rest between
sets. Activities that t within the orange and green bands of the HRPT and RPE/RIR charts characterize those in
which the intermediate energy pathway could be the primary contributor.
Activities that t within the aerobic energy pathway would be categorized as any that correspond with the white,
grey, blue, or green bands of our exercise-intensity reference charts. These are things you can do for longer
than ve (5) minutes up to several hours. Please take note there may be overlap between energy pathways and
neither ever work independently at rest or during exercise. Aerobic metabolism depends primarily energy is
synthesized from fats, but having carbohydrates on board allows the aerobic pathway to operate most efciently