Fig. 1

Experimental design of the study. Healthy males (n = 88, 20–35 years old) were submitted to physical and physiological evaluation before (pre-training), during (aerobic training), and after 8 weeks of aerobic training (post-training), as indicated. The participants performed 8 weeks of aerobic training randomly assigned into four groups based on distinct periodization models: undulatory-undulatory (Und-Und); undulatory-linear (Und-Lin); staggered-undulatory (Sta-Und); staggered-linear (Sta-Lin). Each training participant ran a total of 283.8 km throughout the distinct trainings. Control group maintained their usual aerobic training twice a week