Chronic effects of complex and contrast training on aerobic and anaerobic endurance performance in football players

The aim of this study was to investigate the chronic effects of complex and contrast strength training on aerobic and anaerobic endurance performance in football players. The population of the study consisted of football players of Gaziantep F.K football team, which competed in the TFF Development League in the 2024-2025 season. A total of 30 football players (height: 180.53±6.339 cm, weight: 72.97±7.421 kg and age: 18.10.±0.712 years) participated in the study. This study was conducted according to the experimental design with pre-test-post-test control group from quantitative research methods. Aerobic and anaerobic endurance test measurements were performed on the first two days of the study. Then, all participants were distributed to complex, contrast and control training groups by complete randomisation method. After the groups of the footballers were determined, in addition to the team training, the complex and contrast groups had a total of 24 training sessions, 3 days a week for 8 weeks. The control training group was allowed to continue their training only through weekly training periods. At the end of 8 weeks, aerobic and anaerobic measurements of the subjects were performed and recorded. After the normality test of the obtained data, paired sample t test was used for the pre and post-test comparisons of aerobic and anaerobic parameters, one-way ANOVA test was used for the comparison of the mean differences between the groups of the pre-test and post-test data, and finally LSD test was used for multiple group comparisons, and the significance level was determined as 0.05. As a result of statistical analysis, it was explained that 8-week complex and contrast training showed statistically significant improvement in aerobic and anaerobic endurance performance (p<0.05). A statistically positive statistical significance was found in the 30-15 IFT and Vertical Jump test of complex and contrast training compared to the control group (p<0.05). When the comparisons of both applications between the groups were analysed, no statistical significance was found (p>0.05). As a result, it was understood that the 8-week study showed positive results in aerobic and anaerobic endurance performances in athletes. At the same time, it is recommended that coaches should work with complex and contrast strength training and energy system-oriented training programmes. Key words: Endurance, Football, Strength Training Methods, Post Activation