EFFECT OF INCREASED TRAINING QUALITY ON RESPONSE TO SKITRAINING ON SNOW IN ELITE CROSS-COUNTRY SKIERS 1266

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of increased training quality on training response during on snow skitraining when the volume of training is at its highest. VO2max-test and maximal anaerobic running test on a treadmill were performed and resting blood samples were taken before and after the first ski-training month (November). 25 elite male cross-country skiers(age 24±4 yrs, height 180±6 cm, body mass 72±6 kg) were divided into control (CG, n=17) and quality (QG, n=8) groups whose mean weekly training volumes (17±3 h·wk-1) and contents were the same except that QG replaced 2.3 h (p<0.01) of their weekly ski-training on snow by “dry-land training” (running, circuit training, swimming, stretching and ball games). Ten CG skiers included short extensive intervals in their ski-training but their results did not differ from those of the other CG-skiers. In QG VO2max increased from 77.2±2.3 to 78.4±2.6 ml·kg-1·min-1 (p<0.05) and maximal treadmill performance expressed as the VO2[Illegible Text] increased from 80.7±1.9 to 83.6±1.9 ml·kg-1·min-1 (p<0.001). QG also improved VO2 at respiratory compensation threshold (p<0.05) and the height of the counter-movement jump (p<0.05). No significant changes were observed in CG or in resting testosterone, cortisol, creatine kinase or myoglobin concentrations of the two groups. In pooled data, the change in maximal anaerobic running power was related to the volume of “dry-land training” (r=0.49, p<0.05) and circuit training (r=0.70, p<0.01) and the decrease in resting myoglobin concentration was related to the volume of “dry-land training” (r=-.60, p<0.05) and circuit training(r=0.75, p<0.01). In conclusion, the effects of skitraining on snow can be improved by replacing a small part of it by nonspecific dry-land exercises to avoid muscular overload.