Abstract
It was investigated if high-intensity interval training (HIT) at the expense of total training volume improves performance, maximal oxygen uptake and swimming economy. 41 elite swimmers were randomly allocated to a control (CON) or HIT group. For 12 weeks both groups trained ∼12 h per week. HIT comprised ∼5 h vs. 1 h and total distance was ∼17 km vs. 35 km per week for HIT and CON, respectively. HIT was performed as 6-10×10-30 s maximal effort interspersed by 2–4 minutes of rest. Performance of 100 m all-out freestyle and 200 m freestyle was similar before and after the intervention in both HIT (60.4±4.0 vs. 60.3±4.0 s; n = 13 and 133.2±6.4 vs. 132.6±7.7 s; n = 14) and CON (60.2±3.7 vs. 60.6±3.8 s; n = 15 and 133.5±7.0 vs. 133.3±7.6 s; n = 15). Maximal oxygen uptake during swimming was similar before and after the intervention in both the HIT (4.0±0.9 vs. 3.8±1.0 l O2×min−1; n = 14) and CON (3.8±0.7 vs. 3.8±0.7 l O2×min−1; n = 11) group. Oxygen uptake determined at fixed submaximal speed was not significantly affected in either group by the intervention. Body fat % tended to increase (P = 0.09) in the HIT group (15.4±1.6% vs. 16.3±1.6%; P = 0.09; n = 16) and increased (P<0.05) in the CON group (13.9±1.5% vs. 14.9±1.5%; n = 17). A distance reduction of 50% and a more than doubled HIT amount for 12 weeks did neither improve nor compromise performance or physiological capacity in elite swimmers.
Highlights
High-intensity interval training (HIT), such as 4-6630 s all-out exercise bouts interspersed by 3–5 minutes of rest, has proved to be a potent stimulus for muscular and cardiovascular adaptation in untrained persons [1] and athletes [2]
Maximal oxygen consumption during flume swimming VO2 max determined during freestyle swimming with increasing speed in a flume (Fig. 2) was similar (Trial: p = 0.08; Group: p = 0.76; Trial6Group: p = 0.35) before and after the intervention in both the HIT (4.060.9 lO26min21 vs. 3.861.0 lO26min21; n = 14; p = 0.09) and CON group (3.860.7 lO26min21 vs. 3.860.7 lO26min21; n = 11; p = 0.56)
VO2 max expressed relative to body weight was affected by the intervention (Trial: p = 0.01; Group: p = 0.95; Trial6Group: p = 0.26) with a decrease in HIT (55.767.2 mlO26min216kg21 vs. 52.767.0 mlO26min216kg21; n = 14; p = 0.02) and no significant difference in CON (55.065.9 mlO26min216kg21 vs. 53.866.4 mlO26min216kg21; n = 13; p = 0.31)
Summary
High-intensity interval training (HIT), such as 4-6630 s all-out exercise bouts interspersed by 3–5 minutes of rest, has proved to be a potent stimulus for muscular and cardiovascular adaptation in untrained persons [1] and athletes [2]. VO2max has been found to improve ,6–8% after HIT [4] and to be unaffected in other athletic populations such as recreational runners [5]. HIT can improve work efficiency ,3–6% in recreational runners and soccer players [5,6,7] which is of importance for performance [8]. Brief intense exercise capacity can be improved ,7% and time to exhaustion in a prolonged endurance exercise test can be more than doubled in untrained individuals following HIT [3,9]. In trained individuals performance of brief intense exercise, intermittent running and endurance exercise, such as a 40 km cycling time trial improves ,5–6% after HIT [2,4]
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