Managing Load in Football Using Internal and External Data

Catarina Bajanca, lead sport scientist for Benfica’s women’s first team, shows how her staff combine heart rate and GPS data to plan drills, monitor training live and set the load for each day of the week, for performance staff in women’s professional football.

About this webinar

Catarina Bajanca is lead sport scientist for women’s football and for innovation and methodology at Benfica, whose women’s team had just won the Portuguese league. She describes the team’s set-up in its seventh season, training on the club campus alongside the men’s first team, with sport science, strength and conditioning and return to play each led by a sport scientist. She shows match and training heart rate data, a small-sided game where internal and external load disagree, and how the week is organized from MD-4 to MD+1. The Q&A covers maximum heart rate testing, peak match demands and menstrual cycle tracking. The session runs 57 minutes and was recorded on 16 April 2025.

What you will learn

• Why the same 70 m box-to-box run in 10 seconds is 87.5% of top speed for one player and 80% for another
• How a small-sided game can keep players at 80–90% of maximum heart rate with only 10 m of high-speed running
• Which stimulus Benfica places on MD-4 and which on MD-3
• How 5-minute peak match demands set the intensity of training drills
• How the staff track the menstrual cycle without changing training around it

Practical examples from the recording

1. Same task, different effort. Bajanca’s example: 70 m box to box in 10 seconds is an average of 7 m/s. For a player with a top speed of 8 m/s, that is 87.5% of maximum; for one with 8.8 m/s, it is 80%. Ask both to run at 80% of maximum heart rate and a player with a maximum of 185 bpm averages about 148, while one with 195 averages about 156. Her conclusion: external and internal targets have to be set for each player, not for the group.

2. A drill that looks easy on GPS. In two sets of a small-sided game in a small space, players spent their time at 80–90% of maximum heart rate. GPS showed about 800 m total distance, 10 m of high-speed running and six accelerations and decelerations above 3 m/s². On external data alone the drill looked light. Bajanca uses examples like this to know what each drill actually targets, so the coaching staff can pick the right one for the day.

3. Organizing the week around the match. Every stimulus in the plan, from accelerations and decelerations to high-speed running and time at 80–90% of maximum heart rate, happens in a match, so each gets its own day. In her example, MD-4 carries accelerations and decelerations, because the eccentric load is furthest from the match, and MD-3 carries extensive work, high-speed running and time at 80–90%. Gym pre-activation before training targets the same stimulus as the pitch session that follows.

4. Heart rate in recovery and return to play. Players coming back from injury wear monitors in gym and pitch sessions at the start, middle and end of the process. After a match, players who played more than 60 minutes do a low-intensity run on MD+1, and heart rate counts that work too. For midweek recovery the players cycle at low intensity with their live heart rate on an iPad in front of them, adjusting the bike resistance to stay in the target zone.

Questions answered in the Q&A

How do you set maximum heart rate and heart rate zones?
With a 1,200 m shuttle run, repeated at several points in the season, not only in pre-season. The team uses the standardized percentage zones in its heart rate system. Bajanca says individual thresholds would be better, because the percentages don’t fit every player the same way.

Do you use peak match demands to design training drills?
Yes. The staff use 5-minute peak periods from last season’s most intense matches, mostly Champions League, because many drills and sets last about five minutes. This season had few matches at that level, so those values remain the training target.

Do you track the menstrual cycle, and does it change training?
They track it, but training rarely changes. Each morning players answer a wellness questionnaire with an energy question, a pain body map and menstruation dates and symptoms. Without strong research to support changing sessions, adjustments are individual, such as changing a gym plan for lower back pain.

How do you decide between adjusting the gym and the pitch session?
The pitch session comes first. If training was very demanding, the gym volume drops, for example from three sets to two. Pre-activation before training matches the day’s stimulus, and a weekly yoga session on MD-2 supports recovery, with gym work on MD-3 and MD-4.

How did you get players to accept wearing heart rate straps?
By explaining why. Players don’t love wearing a strap, Bajanca says, but once they understand the purpose, buy-in is high. In the first seasons staff looked mainly at team averages; this season was the one with the strongest focus on internal load and individual detail.

Who this webinar is for

Sport scientists, heads of performance and strength and conditioning coaches in professional women’s football, plus head coaches, physiotherapists and return-to-play staff who plan the training week and want internal and external load read together for each player.