“Metabolism refers to the whole sum of reactions that occur throughout the body within each cell and that provide the body with energy.” (NIH).

It means change and, in your body’s case, how your body's systems are changing and reacting to what it takes in when you eat. Your metabolism is running all the time, but this is not about how we can speed up or slow down anybody’s metabolism.

We are talking about how your body changes and reacts to a type of conditioning designed to replicate the same moves it makes in competition. In addition, the duration of the drills, the distance run, and resistance applied, if any, is duplicated. 

That’s a mouthful, which is why these types of workouts are so valuable.

I want to be clear that there is more than one way to get there from here. 

I have talked in previous articles about how, for high school football, we ran 50-yard sprints that had a 7-second cap with a 25-second rest. I wanted that to be metabolic for this reason.

Here's the logic:

• Average football play lasts about 3.5 seconds.
• Double the time to 7 seconds.
• 50 yards at 7 seconds is a good metabolic pace.
• 25 seconds is the high school play clock. That's our rest.
• 12 minutes in a quarter - so we ran sets of 12.

It worked very well and I adapted it to other sports conditioning programs.

Another favorite was the "Metabolic".

It looks like this: 

• Put 4 cones down spaced at 10, 15, 20, and 30 yards. 
• The coach calls out two moves to be made, the first one to the 20-yard mark and the second runs back to the 10-yard cone, ending up at the start. 
• The rest interval is a walk-back recovery, and there is a 2-minute break between sets. There is a 30-yard mark because we include a 30-yard sprint in the workout. The instructions are minimal.

Metabolic Sample:

• Forward - Shuffle left
• Carrie Oka right - Backpedal
• Shuffle - Shuffle
• Shuffle left - CrossOver left (trickier than it sounds)
• Forward - Forward (you’ll have fun with that one)
• Sprint 30

See: "How much fitness is enough"

There are 6 examples, so you can see how creative you can make the workout. Each rep is a walk-back recovery; there is no clock on the rest interval. Do 12 reps and take a 2-minute break. 

Twelve is one set; the coach's discretion for how many sets. 

I have preferred to do these no more than once a week for the reason that I have a big menu of training I want done.

Those are just two examples of drills you can add to your in-season program. For the weekly schedule, you can check out this previous in-season conditioning article.