A Comparison of Mean and Peak Internal Training and Competition Physical Demands in Professional Male Basketball Players

Purpose: The main aim of this study was to compare the average and peak values of heart rate [HR], oxygen consumption [VO2], and respiratory rate [RR] of professional basketball players between practices and competition. Methods: Data was collected from professional basketball players competing in the First Spanish professional basketball league during five pre-season games and twenty practices using a 9-axis motion sensor. The data collected included internal workload variables recorded as averages (i.e., value per minute considering the entire game) and peak values (i.e., greatest 1 min window): average heart rate (HR), peak HR, average oxygen consumption (VO2), peak VO2, average Respiratory rate (RR) and Peak RR. Results: Higher average VO2 values were observed during training sessions compared to games (F = 4.20, ES = −0.40, trivial). Nevertheless, no significant differences were found between games and training sessions for the remaining average variables. Considering peak demands, all variables were higher during games than during training sessions including peak HR (ES = 1.07, moderate), peak VO2 (ES = 1.14, moderate), and peak RR (ES = 1.02, moderate). Conclusions: In this sample of professional basketball players, competition elicited substantially greater peak HR, VO2, and RR values than training sessions, whereas average physiological responses were largely comparable between contexts. These findings suggest that monitoring both average and peak physiological responses may provide a more comprehensive understanding of training representativeness relative to competition.