Comparison Of Underwater And Land-based Treadmill Running

Abstract

Deep water (DW) running with a buoyancy device is popular with sports medicine physicians, physical therapists, and coaches as a part of rehabilitation. Research has found that muscle recruitment and lower extremity kinematics for DW running is different from land-based (LB) running. Running on an underwater (UW) treadmill allows the athlete to reproduce the pattern of limb movement used during LB running. Specially designed shoes have been developed to enhance a runner's kinesthetic perception and mimic LB running. PURPOSE: To compare metabolic and cardiovascular responses during two submaximal UW treadmill trials (barefoot and with specially designed shoes) and LB treadmill running. METHODS: Trained male triathletes (n=13) served as participants (mean ± sd age, ht and wt = 34.3±9.7 years, 182.1±6.2 cm, 79.5±1 kg). Each completed 3 30-min treadmill trials at a workload to elicit 70% max VO2 (established via each respective mode) running on an UW treadmill wearing water running shoes, running on an UW treadmill barefoot, and running on a LB treadmill. VO2 and VCO2 were measured continuously. HR was recorded every minute. RPE was assessed every 2 minutes. Descriptive statistics and repeated measures ANOVA were performed. RESULTS: There were no differences among trials for HR, RER and RPE (p=0.07, 0.56 and 0.14, respectively). There was a difference in VO2 and VCO2 between the barefoot UW trials and LB trials (VO2= 36.4±7.9 and 40.8±4.6 ml.kg.min, respectively, p= 0.01; VCO2 = 34.5±7.7 and 38.3±4.9 ml.kg.min, respectively, p=0.02). These values were not significantly different from UW trials with shoes (VO2 = 39.1±5.6 and VCO2 = 37.2±5.4 ml.kg.min). UW treadmill speed, jet resistance and water temperature were not different between UW trials (p = 0.45, 0.17 and 0.77, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that UW treadmill running wearing specially designed shoes produces similar metabolic responses as LB running.