ALTITUDE AND HYPOXIA TRAINING – EFFECTS ON PERFORMANCE CAPACITY AND PHYSIOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS AT SEA LEVEL

Dieter Böning
Institute of Sports Medicine, Free University, Berlin

ABSTRACT
Athletes sometimes use hypoxic training to prepare for competitions at sea level because of the importance of oxygen transport and consumption for endurance performance. But, clear evidence for its effectiveness is lacking. Maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) decreases in hypoxia, so training at altitude is harder. Hypoxic training may stimulate adaptation processes faster because relative work is greater in hypoxia than in normoxia.
A specific altitude training effect can only be proven if a relative equal exercise load (in % of VO2max) is more effective than during sea level training. Four of eleven studies have shown that training at high altitude improved sea level endurance performance or VO2max more than sea level training did. Only two of eight studies showed improved performance when training in hypoxia combined with living in normoxia. The results for living in hypoxia while training in normoxia (i.e., “live high, train low”) are not convincing. There seems to exist a small specific altitude effect on performance capacity, which may be counteracted by negative influences, such as reduced stimulation of muscular metabolism. Training in hypoxic environments might have positive or negative effects on training success. Considerations include training the respiratory muscles, increased hypoxic ventilatory stimulation, different training stimulus of the left and right heart, increased red cell and plasma volume (the latter after descent), rightward shift of the oxygen dissociation curve, changes in muscle mass, enzymes and capillaries, shift from fat and muscle glycogen use to blood glucose combustion, reduced lactic acid and ammonia production, and changes in bicarbonate and non-bicarbonate buffer capacities.

Key words: acclimatization, blood volume, endurance, performance capacity

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The effect of extremely weak pulsed electromagnetic field treatments upon signs and symptoms of delayed onset of muscle soreness; a placebo controlled

clinical double blind study

Krzysztof Spodaryk
Jagiellonian University and Academy of Physical Education, Kraków, Poland

ABSTRACT
The effect of pulsed weak electromagnetic fields upon experimentally induced delayed onset of muscle soreness (DOMS) was assessed in a placebo controlled clinical double blind study. DOMS was induced in 36 volunteers and the elbow flexors of the non-dominant arm were used for a standardized eccentric exercise regime. Subjects were randomly allocated to one of the three groups: control (C, n=12), sham-treated (S-T, n=12) and treated with a special kind of pulsed electromagnetic fields (T, n=12) by applying the BEMER 3000 local therapy intensive applicator. Volunteers from group T were electromagnetically stimulated each day with a magnetic field of 86 T. Subjects from the sham-treated group were treated by deactivated BEMER 3000 systems. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) demonstrated significant effects of electromagnetic field treatment on retarding pain intensity as measured by visual analogue scale (VAS) (p<0.05). According to standard methods of goniometrical measurements statistically significant differences in the range of movement between the control-, sham-treated- and electromagnetic treated groups were further found on the second day of the experiments. Within the conditions of the current experiments the pulsed electromagnetic (BEMER 3000) field treatment exerts clearcut and favourable effects upon the cardinal signs and symptoms of DOMS.

Key words: pulsed electro-magnetic fields of Bemer 3000 type, delayed onset of muscle soreness

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