Endurance training of respiratory muscles improves cycling performance in fit young cyclists.docVIP

BMC Physiology BioMedCentral Research article Open Access Endurance training of respiratory muscles improves cycling performance in fit young cyclists Paige Holm, Angela Sattler and Ralph F Fregosi* Address: Department of Physiology, The University of Arizona, Tucson, U.S.A Email: Paige Holm - paige.holm@USOC.org; Angela Sattler - angelas@; Ralph F Fregosi* - fregosi@ * Corresponding author Published: 06 May 2004 Received: 22 December 2003 Accepted: 06 May 2004 BMC Physiology 2004, 4:9 This article is available from: /1472-6793/4/9 ? 2004 Holm et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article: verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all media for any purpose, provided this notice is preserved along with the articles original URL. exercisehumansoxygen consumptionpulmonary ventilationtime trial tests Abstract Background: Whether or not isolated endurance training of the respiratory muscles improves whole-body endurance exercise performance is controversial, with some studies reporting enhancements of 50 % or more, and others reporting no change. Twenty fit (VO2 max 56.0 ml/kg/ min), experienced cyclists were randomly assigned to three groups. The experimental group (n = 10) trained their respiratory muscles via 20, 45 min sessions of hyperpnea. The placebo group (n = 4) underwent sham training (20, 5 min sessions), and the control group (n = 6) did no training. Results: After training, the experimental group increased their respiratory muscle endurance capacity by 12 %. Performance on a bicycle time trial test designed to last about 40 min improved by 4.7 % (9 of 10 subjects showed improvement). There were no test-re-test improvements in either respiratory muscle or bicycle exercise endurance performance in the placebo group, nor in the control group. After training, the experimental group had significantly higher ventilatory output and VO2, and lower PCO2,