CHANGES IN UPPER BODY ECONOMY OF YOUNG CROSS COUNTRY SKIERS 974

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to look at changes in economy of double poling technique by upper body ˙VO2 measurements of young cross country skiers following four months of summer training including upper body aerobic and power training. Upper body ˙VO2 was measured during a simulated double poling ˙VO2peak test for cross country skiers using a Freestyle® arm ergometer from Ergometrx. 10 young cross country biathlon skiers, 5 male (15±1.37 years) and 5 female skiers(16.7±5 years) all members of a national development program with running ˙VO2max values of 68.3±3.6ml·kg-1·min-1 and 57.1±2.7 ml·kg-1·min-1 respectively, performed a one minute stage ˙VO2peak test. Stage increments were set to 10% of individual max arm power determined during pretesting. Economy data were analyzed for those stages completed by all subjects (40 - 90 watts). The followingtable shows the changes in ˙VO2 (pre to post training) at each 10 watt increment. Analysis found no difference between the sexes when looking at pre and post ˙VO2 values at each stage. The average post-training reduction in ˙VO2 over the range of 40-90 watts for the young athletes was -2.39±.48 ml·kg-1·min-1. In addition, this group of young athletes improved their max arm power an average of 35.8±4.4 watts and 15±5.63 watts for males and females respectively though upper body˙VO2peak did not change for either sex. Improvements in submaximal arm work in developing cross country athletes seems to be due, in part, to an improvement in economy.