Abstract
Purpose: To examine the development of performance, physiological and technical capacities as well as the effect of sport background among runners, kayakers and rowers when transferred to cross-country (XC) skiing over a 6-month training period.Methods: Twenty-four endurance athletes (15 runners and 9 rowers/kayakers; 15 men and 9 women) were tested for performance, physiological and technical capacities during treadmill running and roller-ski skating, double-poling ergometry, as well as upper-body, one-repetition maximum-strength (1 RM) at baseline (pre) after three (mid) and 6-months (post) of XC ski-specific training.Results: Peak treadmill speed when roller-ski skating improved significantly (13%, P < 0.01) from pre-post, with a larger improvement in runners than in kayakers/rowers (16 vs. 9%, P < 0.05), whereas peak speed in running was unchanged. Average power output during 5-min and 30-s ergometer double-poling tests improved by 8% and 5% (both P < 0.01), with improvement found only in runners on the 30-s test (8 vs. −2% in kayakers/rowers, P < 0.01). Peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak) in running and double-poling ergometry did not improve, whereas VO2peak in roller-ski skating improved by 5% in runners (P < 0.05). Submaximal gross efficiency increased by 0.6%-point and cycle length by 13%, whereas 1 RM in seated pull-down and triceps press increased by 12 and 11%, respectively (all P < 0.05).Conclusion: Six-months of XC ski-specific training induced large improvements in sport-specific performance which were associated with better skiing efficiency, longer cycle length, and greater 1RM upper-body strength in a group of endurance athletes transferring to XC skiing. Furthermore, larger sport-specific development was found in runners compared to kayakers/rowers.
Highlights
Cross-country (XC) skiing is a traditional Winter Olympic sport, involving combined upper-and lower-body exertion of varying intensity in competitions lasting from ∼3 min (∼1.3–1.8 km) in sprint races to more than 2 h (≤50 km) in the longest distance races (FIS, 2019)
Kayakers/rowers demonstrated 12.5 and 9.3% higher body mass and body mass index (BMI) compared to runners at baseline, whereas no significant changes in body mass or body height was observed either for all pooled or among the two groups following the training period (Table 3)
The present study examined the development of performance, physiological and technical capacities as well as the effect of sport background among runners and kayakers/rowers when transferred to XC skiing over a 6-month training period
Summary
Cross-country (XC) skiing is a traditional Winter Olympic sport, involving combined upper-and lower-body exertion of varying intensity in competitions lasting from ∼3 min (∼1.3–1.8 km) in sprint races to more than 2 h (≤50 km) in the longest distance races (FIS, 2019). The constant changes in terrain leads to fluctuations in speed, work rate, and metabolic intensity as well as utilization of different sub-techniques of skating and classical styles both during training and competitions (Sandbakk et al, 2011a, 2016b; Bolger et al, 2015; Andersson et al, 2017; Karlsson et al, 2018; Haugnes et al, 2019; Losnegard, 2019). Because of the technical complexity of XC skiing, sport-specific peak oxygen uptakes (VO2peak) above 90% of VO2max combined with high fractional utilization of VO2peak in all the main sub-techniques in classical and skating are considered as important capacities in modern XC skiing (Sandbakk and Holmberg, 2017). Sport-specific performance in the laboratory (e.g., time to exhaustion and peak speed) during treadmill roller-skiing using both skating and classical techniques has repeatedly been associated with on-snow performance (Sandbakk et al, 2011a, 2016b) and used to distinguish skiers on different performance levels (Sandbakk et al, 2011b, 2016a)
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