Tapering: How Less Training Can Help Endurance Athletes Perform More
For endurance athletes, the weeks before an important race can be surprisingly difficult. After months of building fitness through training, the instinct may be to keep pushing until race day. But what if doing less could actually help you perform better?
A 2023 systematic review and meta-analysis published in PLOS ONE examined this question The researchers looked at how reducing training - tapering - before competition affected time-trial performance, time to exhaustion, maximal oxygen consumption and economy of movement.
As ever, please talk to your doctor or medical practitioner most familiar with your medical history before implementing any changes in diet, exercise or lifestyle, especially if you are under treatment. Links to all studies at bottom of page.
What exactly is a taper?
A taper is a planned reduction in training load before an important competition. Rather than stopping exercise completely, athletes reduce the amount of training they do while generally retaining enough intensity and frequency to maintain the adaptations they have developed.
The reasoning is relatively straightforward. Training produces both beneficial adaptations and fatigue. While regular training builds fitness, accumulated training stress can leave an athlete tired and unable to express that fitness fully on race day. Tapering aims to reduce this fatigue while preserving the physical adaptations gained through training.
The review focused mainly on well-trained endurance athletes, with the included participants aged between 17 and 32. Their sports were primarily running and cycling, with some representation of other endurance activities. Time-trial distances ranged from 800 metres to 40 kilometres.
Tapering was linked with better endurance performance
The headline finding was encouraging: tapering was associated with significant improvements in time-trial performance.
Across all 14 studies reporting time-trial results, athletes performed significantly better after tapering. The researchers also found a significant improvement when tapering groups were compared with control groups.
In practical terms, this means that reducing training before competition did not appear to make athletes lose their hard-earned fitness. Instead, the reduction in training load was associated with an improved ability to express that fitness when tested.
The researchers also examined time to exhaustion, which measures how long an athlete can continue exercising at a prescribed workload before stopping. Four studies contributed data for this outcome, and the pooled results showed a significant improvement after tapering.
This is potentially important because tapering may not simply make athletes feel fresher. The authors discuss the possibility that reducing accumulated fatigue can improve fatigue tolerance and help athletes sustain exercise for longer.
More training is not necessarily better before race day
One of the most useful findings concerns training volume. The analysis found that reducing training volume by 41 to 60% was associated with a significant improvement in time-trial performance. Smaller reductions of 20% or less and 21 to 40% did not produce statistically significant improvements in the subgroup analysis, while reductions of 60% or more also did not reach statistical significance.
This does not mean every athlete should suddenly cut their training by exactly 50%. Rather, it provides a useful range from the studies included in the review.
The distinction matters because tapering is not simply about doing less exercise. It is about manipulating different components of training: volume, intensity, frequency and duration, to reduce fatigue without unnecessarily compromising fitness.
Keep the intensity, reduce the volume
Perhaps the clearest practical message from the analysis was that athletes may benefit from maintaining training intensity while reducing volume.
Maintaining intensity was associated with a significant improvement in time-trial performance, whereas reducing intensity did not produce a significant improvement in the subgroup analysis.
The authors also discuss the importance of maintaining some high-intensity work as training volume falls. The proposed rationale is that this can help maintain aspects of fitness while the athlete benefits from reduced overall training stress. However, this should not be interpreted as a recommendation to cram more hard sessions into the final days before competition. The review highlights that intensity needs to be managed alongside the reduction in volume and the athlete's recovery.
What about training frequency?
Training frequency is another part of the taper puzzle. The meta-analysis found that maintaining training frequency was associated with a significant improvement in time-trial performance, while reducing frequency did not produce a significant improvement.
One possible explanation discussed by the researchers is that maintaining frequency can preserve an athlete's sense of movement and technical familiarity. This could be particularly relevant for sports in which technique plays an important role.
Interestingly, the authors note that the appropriate approach may depend on the sport. For activities with relatively low technical demands, such as long-distance running and cycling, a modest reduction in frequency may be possible. Sports with greater technical requirements may benefit more from maintaining frequency.
How long should a taper last?
The studies included taper periods ranging from 6 to 28 days. The subgroup analysis found significant improvements in time-trial performance with tapers lasting up to seven days, eight to 14 days, and 15–21 days. Among these, the 8 to 14 day period produced the largest overall effect in the analysis.
The authors therefore suggest that a taper of up to 21 days can be effective, with 8 to 14 days appearing particularly useful in the evidence they reviewed.
But there is an important qualification: there is no single taper duration that will necessarily work for every athlete.
Recovery from a reduction in training load varies between individuals, and the researchers emphasise that the appropriate duration depends on factors including the size of the training-load reduction and the athlete's physiological and psychological response. In other words, an 8 day taper is not automatically better than a 14 day taper simply because it is shorter. The taper needs to fit the athlete and the preceding training programme.
Should you taper gradually or suddenly?
The researchers examined two broad approaches: progressive tapering and step tapering.
A progressive taper gradually reduces training load, while a step taper involves a more standardised reduction. Both approaches were associated with significant improvements in time-trial performance in the analysis. The researchers found a somewhat larger effect for progressive tapering, but the evidence does not establish that one approach is universally appropriate.
There was also uncertainty surrounding different types of progressive taper. Some previous research has suggested benefits from a faster reduction in training load, while other work has found potential advantages for a slower reduction, particularly in cyclists. The authors suggest that taper duration and the rate at which training load is reduced should be considered together.
The role of an overload period
One particularly interesting finding was the potential benefit of performing a period of increased training load before beginning the taper.
The subgroup analysis suggested that tapering combined with pre-taper overload training produced greater improvements in time-trial performance than conventional tapering alone. The researchers also examined the original studies and reported that the overload periods involved training intensity around 85 to 95% of maximum heart rate, with training load approximately 23 to 26% higher than normal training in the studies they tracked.
The proposed explanation is that an overload period can provide an additional training stimulus, after which the taper gives the body an opportunity to recover and adapt.
However, this is an area where individualisation is particularly important. Deliberately increasing training load immediately before a taper is not something to approach casually, especially if an athlete is already struggling with fatigue, illness or injury.
What did tapering not change?
Interestingly, tapering did not significantly improve every measure of endurance capacity. The meta-analysis found no significant improvement in maximal oxygen consumption when comparing pre- and post-taper measurements. It also found no significant improvement in economy of movement.
That is an important reminder that better race performance does not necessarily mean every physiological measurement improves.
The authors suggest that the benefits of tapering may instead involve a combination of maintaining aerobic capacity while reducing accumulated physiological and psychological stress. They discuss potential changes involving cardiovascular function, blood volume, muscle glycogen, fatigue-related measures and emotional state, although these mechanisms were drawn from the wider research discussed in the paper rather than being directly established by every study in this meta-analysis.
Practical takeaways for endurance athletes
The findings provide a useful framework for thinking about the final weeks before an endurance competition.
A taper could involve reducing training volume substantially while keeping intensity relatively consistent.
The evidence in this review particularly supports a volume reduction in the region of 41 to 60%, with training frequency maintained where appropriate.
A taper lasting up to 21 days was associated with improved time-trial performance, with 8 to 14 days producing the largest effect in the subgroup analysis. Both progressive and step approaches were associated with improvements.
The key is that tapering should not mean simply abandoning training. The study's findings suggest that maintaining an appropriate level of intensity can help preserve performance while the reduction in volume allows accumulated fatigue to dissipate.
For someone preparing for an event, this could mean thinking of the taper as a carefully controlled transition rather than a period of inactivity. The exact approach should take into account the athlete's sport, training history, competition demands and individual response to reduced training.
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Final Thoughts
The central message from this systematic review is surprisingly simple:
When competition approaches, more training is not necessarily the answer.
Across the studies examined, tapering was associated with improved time-trial performance and greater time to exhaustion. The most useful pattern identified by the researchers involved reducing training volume by around 41 to 60%, while maintaining intensity and, where appropriate, training frequency. Tapers lasting up to 21 days were effective in the analysis, with 8 to 14 days producing the largest overall effect.
Perhaps most importantly, tapering should be viewed as part of training rather than as time away from training. The goal is to arrive at competition having retained the adaptations built over months of work while shedding enough accumulated fatigue to allow those adaptations to be expressed.
Stay Healthy,
Alastair
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Related Studies and Resources
Wang Z, Wang YT, Gao W, Zhong Y. Effects of tapering on performance in endurance athletes: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS One. 2023 May 10;18(5):e0282838. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0282838. PMID: 37163550; PMCID: PMC10171681.
Other
Lang JJ, Prince SA, Merucci K, Cadenas-Sanchez C, Chaput JP, Fraser BJ, Manyanga T, McGrath R, Ortega FB, Singh B, Tomkinson GR. Cardiorespiratory fitness is a strong and consistent predictor of morbidity and mortality among adults: an overview of meta-analyses representing over 20.9 million observations from 199 unique cohort studies. Br J Sports Med. 2024 May 2;58(10):556-566. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2023-107849. PMID: 38599681; PMCID: PMC11103301.
Oeschger R, Roos L, Wyss T, Buller MJ, Veenstra BJ, Gilgen-Ammann R. Influence of Soldiers' Cardiorespiratory Fitness on Physiological Responses and Dropouts During a Loaded Long-distance March. Mil Med. 2022 Jan 7;188(7-8):e1903–9. doi: 10.1093/milmed/usab540. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35015894; PMCID: PMC10363014.
Orr R, Pope R, Lopes TJA, Leyk D, Blacker S, Bustillo-Aguirre BS, Knapik JJ. Soldier Load Carriage, Injuries, Rehabilitation and Physical Conditioning: An International Approach. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Apr 11;18(8):4010. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18084010. PMID: 33920426; PMCID: PMC8069713.
Godhe M, Helge T, Mattsson CM, Ekblom Ö, Ekblom B. Physiological Factors of Importance for Load Carriage in Experienced and Inexperienced Men and Women. Mil Med. 2020 Aug 14;185(7-8):e1168-e1174. doi: 10.1093/milmed/usaa050. PMID: 32248224.
Hunt AP, Billing DC, Patterson MJ, Caldwell JN. Heat strain during military training activities: The dilemma of balancing force protection and operational capability. Temperature (Austin). 2016 Feb 26;3(2):307-317. doi: 10.1080/23328940.2016.1156801. PMID: 27857960; PMCID: PMC4965006.
Orr RM, Pope R. Gender differences in load carriage injuries of Australian army soldiers. BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2016 Nov 25;17(1):488. doi: 10.1186/s12891-016-1340-0. PMID: 27884191; PMCID: PMC5123228.
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