Chapter 57 Yesterday Afternoon

Time rewinds to yesterday afternoon.

Klopp was in his office, reviewing the team's physical test results he had just received.

Next to him were all the members of the fitness coaching team. Klopp would pass each report to the fitness coaches after reading it.

He was staring intently at one particular report.

"Oliver," he said.

Oliver Bartlett leaned in.

"Look at this." Klopp pointed to a chart on the report for Bartlett to see. It was a chart showing the player's heart rate changes at different speeds.

"Zhou Yi's?" Bartlett asked.

"Yes."

Bartlett picked up the report and examined it carefully.

After reading that page, he flipped through the rest.

After finishing, he held the report and said to Klopp, "I remember we did a similar physical test for him when he first joined the youth team... I still have the report. I'll go get it."

With that, he left Klopp's office directly. The other colleagues looked up at Bartlett's hurried departure, somewhat puzzled.

Klopp didn't explain, but continued to look at the next report.

Before long, Bartlett returned to Klopp's office with another report.

He then flipped both reports to the same chart page, compared them, and tapped the report. "Well, the heart rate changes are obvious. His heart rate has decreased."

Heart rate is an important indicator for athletes, especially in terms of physical fitness.

A simple comparison method is that professional athletes, especially endurance athletes, have lower heart rates than ordinary people. This is the result of the body's heart adapting and adjusting after professional training.

Therefore, by examining a person's heart rate changes during exercise, it is easy to see whether he is a qualified athlete or has received professional training.

This was also verified in Zhou Yi's case.

When he first came to Dortmund, he had a physical examination, which was a team entry medical.

In fact, Zhou Yi had already felt the professionalism of European football clubs during that physical examination.

He used to think that a physical examination was just a simple test of height, weight, endurance, and speed.

But in reality, it was much more complicated than he imagined.

The team doctor asked about his medical history, whether he had undergone any surgery before, and he had to answer truthfully about his family medical history. Because Zhou Yi had not played for other clubs before, Dortmund could not inquire about his injury history from Zhou Yi's previous clubs, so they could only rely on Zhou Yi's honesty. If Zhou Yi wanted to hide anything, it would be difficult for Dortmund to know.

However, Zhou Yi had no history of injuries other than colds, and he had never had surgery.

Then, Zhou Yi was asked about his lifestyle habits, such as what time he went to bed every day, what time he got up, how was his sleep quality, whether it was good or bad, did he dream, not many dreams, whether he had insomnia, did he drink coffee, did drinking coffee affect his sleep, what was the frequency of drinking coffee, usual diet, light or heavy taste...

After that, he had a heart examination, including an electrocardiogram test and an echocardiogram.

Urine tests were also performed to check for protein and ketones to avoid problems such as diabetes.

Then there was an examination of muscles and joints, where a physical therapist would assess the range of motion of each joint and compare it with normal values.

Muscle strength was also very important. For example, if there was an imbalance in the muscles of both legs, it could affect the player's ability to run long distances.

Drawing blood was also essential. Once before the physical examination and once after the physical examination.

The test results of the blood can show the player's kidney function, vitamin intake, and changes in these indicators during exercise.

The ability of aerobic exercise and the ability of anaerobic exercise are very important indicators for football players, so there will naturally be many tests in this regard. Zhou Yi was asked to test his limits as much as possible in this test.

At that time, Zhou Yi was wearing an oxygen mask similar to that of a pilot, and his body was covered with electrodes. He was running at a very high intensity on a treadmill, and the cadence and running angle of the treadmill were constantly changing.

This kind of running can analyze Zhou Yi's aerobic metabolism ability, which is the ability to use oxygen when exercising.

In addition to these physical examinations, there were also dental examinations and intelligence tests.

Zhou Yi had never thought of these things before, but he experienced them all in the physical examination.

And now Bartlett was comparing the results of Zhou Yi's physical examination when he first joined the team with the results of the current physical examination.

In just eight months, Zhou Yi's heart rate has changed significantly. Whether during exercise or at rest, his heart rate is slower than before.

And this is an important indicator of physical fitness.

To put it simply, when the human body is engaged in strenuous exercise, the metabolic rate will increase sharply, and the heart will have to use its reserve power to meet the increased demand of the body's metabolic rate by increasing the cardiac output per minute. The so-called cardiac output per minute is the amount of blood ejected each time the ventricle on one side of the heart contracts and bulges.

And blood is responsible for supplying oxygen to all organs and tissues of the body, so cardiac output per minute can also be understood as the output energy of a person each time his heart beats.

The work done by the piston of a car engine each time it strokes is similar to the cardiac output per minute of a human being.

The higher the power of the engine, the more power it produces, the more cardiac output of the human heart, the greater the output energy, and the more outstanding the exercise ability.

During exercise, compared with the quiet state when not exercising, the cardiac output per minute will increase four to six times or even more.

Generally speaking, ordinary people will increase their cardiac output by increasing their heart rate during strenuous exercise, which is why ordinary people feel their heart beating fast during strenuous exercise. Because if the heart does not speed up its contraction and expansion, it will not be able to increase the oxygen supply.

Normally, the amount of blood ejected by the heart each time it beats is about seventy to eighty milliliters. After the amount ejected per beat increases several times during exercise, the heart will bear a huge load. Therefore, ordinary people who have not undergone professional training cannot maintain this high-load exercise for a long time, which can easily lead to accidents such as cardiac arrest, and in severe cases, sudden death.

However, the heart can be changed through training.

Long-term high-load endurance training can expand the heart chambers and thicken the ventricular walls, and the heart rate will also decrease.

Players are always in a state of sympathetic nerve excitement during training and competition - the activity of the sympathetic nerve mainly guarantees the physiological needs of the human body in a state of tension - and at the same time, it reflexively causes a continuous increase in vagal nerve tension - the vagus nerve controls the sensation, movement, and secretion of glands in organs such as the heart.

Slowing down the heart rate is beneficial for exercise because it can reduce the heart muscle's oxygen consumption. After all, the heart also needs oxygen to supply energy when it beats. If the heartbeat is too fast, it will consume more energy and oxygen, which will reduce the energy supplied to other parts of the body. This is why it is necessary to slow down the heart rate.

Slower heart rate, reduced heart muscle oxygen consumption, and at the same time, prolonged diastole, increased coronary perfusion time during diastole, and increased oxygen supply to the heart muscle.

According to statistics, the heart rate of professional players is generally lower than that of ordinary people. Their heart rate at rest or during sleep is forty beats per minute, which is not a special phenomenon.

Therefore, a player's level of exercise can be seen from the heart rate.

Zhou Yi's heart rate changes indicate that his athletic ability has increased, or more specifically, his endurance has increased. Because slower heart rates are basically related to endurance sports.

This is actually very normal. Anyone can lower their heart rate after systematic and scientific training. This is a reflection of the body's self-regulation.

However, some people have stronger self-regulation and adaptation abilities, while others are worse.

Now Zhou Yi's two physical examination reports are placed in front of Klopp and Bartlett, and they found that Zhou Yi has made great progress in terms of physical fitness.

You know, eight months ago, Zhou Yi was still an amateur rookie who had never received professional systematic physical training, and eight months later, his physical condition has greatly improved. The extent of this improvement exceeded Zhou Yi's muscle strength - there were also muscle strength tests in the two physical examinations, and Zhou Yi's progress in this area was relatively small.

This shows that Zhou Yi is a person with great potential to be tapped in terms of physical fitness.

This is a good thing for Klopp, which makes him more optimistic about Zhou Yi's future.

Because in his mind, Zhou Yi's future, all abilities are based on sufficient physical fitness.

Whether it is Zhou Yi's playing style or Dortmund, which Klopp himself coaches, requires a lot of physical support.

If Zhou Yi is a player whose physical fitness increases slowly no matter how he trains and is not known for his physical fitness, then Klopp's evaluation of Zhou Yi will be lowered, and his decision to buy him personally may be wrong.

Although the club will not suffer too much loss, not every young player can eventually become a talent. But after seeing Zhou Yi's talent, Klopp would be very regretful if he failed to become a talent in the end. Because Zhou Yi's talent is not something that every genius player can have...

There are thousands of midfielders in this world, and world-class midfield organizers are not rare, but only Xavi himself can play like Xavi.

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"Let his strength training follow the team's average standard. No need to add extra," Klopp began to say to the entire physical fitness coaching team, but mainly to Wang Le, who was in charge of strength training.

Wang Le nodded: "Okay. Anyway, no matter how much that kid trains, he can't become a bodybuilder like me. His muscle type is different. Maybe that kid is a marathon runner."

Generally speaking, long-distance runners and marathon runners rarely see strong muscle monsters. They are often thin, with slender and dry hands and feet. They don't seem to have many muscles, but they often have very good endurance. Especially those long-distance runners in Kenya, each one looks like they are malnourished, but they can dominate the long-distance running world. This is definitely not because Kenyans are generally malnourished...

"But we can have more requirements for his physical training." Klopp turned to Bartlett.

"No problem. In terms of physical fitness, I think Zhou Yi is a talented player," Bartlett said.

Compared with ordinary athletes, talented athletes can maintain higher training intensity and complete larger training volume. Because their recovery cycle is shorter than ordinary athletes.

Subsequently, in the discussion between Klopp and the physical fitness coaching team, Zhou Yi's personal physical training plan was born.