Abstract
Purpose: To identify the combined effect of increasing tissue level oxygen consumption and metabolite accumulation on the ergogenic efficacy of ischemic preconditioning (IPC) during both maximal aerobic and maximal anaerobic exercise.Methods: Twelve healthy males (22 ± 2 years, 179 ± 2 cm, 80 ± 10 kg, 48 ± 4 ml.kg−1.min−1) underwent four experimental conditions: (i) no IPC control, (ii) traditional IPC, (iii) IPC with EMS, and (iv) IPC with treadmill walking. IPC involved bilateral leg occlusion at 220 mmHg for 5 min, repeated three times, separated by 5 min of reperfusion. Within 10 min following the IPC procedures, a 30 s Wingate test and subsequent (after 25 min rest) incremental maximal aerobic test were performed on a cycle ergometer.Results: There was no statistical difference in anaerobic peak power between the no IPC control (1211 ± 290 W), traditional IPC (1209 ± 300 W), IPC + EMS (1206 ± 311 W), and IPC + Walk (1220 ± 288 W; P = 0.7); nor did VO2max change between no IPC control (48 ± 2 ml.kg−1.min−1), traditional IPC (48 ± 6 ml.kg−1.min−1), IPC + EMS (49 ± 4 ml.kg−1.min−1) and IPC + Walk (48 ± 6 ml.kg−1.min−1; P = 0.3). However, the maximal watts during the VO2max increased when IPC was combined with both EMS (304 ± 38 W) and walking (308 ± 40 W) compared to traditional IPC (296 ± 39 W) and no IPC control (293 ± 48 W; P = 0.02).Conclusion: This study shows that in a group of participants for whom a traditional IPC stimulus was not effective, the magnification of the IPC stress through muscle contractions while under occlusion led to a subsequent exercise performance response. These findings support that amplification of the ischemic preconditioning stimulus augments the effect for exercise capacity.
Highlights
It has been demonstrated that brief periods of circulatory occlusion and reperfusion, or ischemic preconditioning (IPC), can act to improve exercise performance (Jean-St-Michel et al, 2011; Bailey et al, 2012)
The main novel findings were that (1) IPC, when combined with walking or electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) significantly improved peak watt output in the maximal aerobic test to exhaustion, despite traditional IPC causing no significant benefit; (2) neither IPC nor an augmented adaptation of IPC improved maximal oxygen consumption; (3) neither IPC alone nor augmented IPC improved maximal anaerobic power. These findings suggest that a certain magnitude of metabolic and/or hypoxic stimulus may, be important for stimulating the positive effects of IPC on exercise capacity, but that this effect was not driven by a change in aerobic or anaerobic maximal capacity
It is worth noting that the one study which previously reported no change in peak power output during cycling following IPC used the lowest occlusion pressure (Hittinger et al, 2014), and it is possible that the induced metabolic stress was lower, similar to the pattern we report here
Summary
It has been demonstrated that brief periods of circulatory occlusion and reperfusion, or ischemic preconditioning (IPC), can act to improve exercise performance (Jean-St-Michel et al, 2011; Bailey et al, 2012). IPC alone, has not been shown to elicit a sympathetic response, whereas the combination of cyclic bouts of blood flow restriction-reperfusion and treadmill exercise at 65% heart rate max has (Sprick and Rickards, 2017). It remains unclear if this combination can lead to improvements in performance, but it is possible that a sufficient metabolic stimulus (intramuscular perturbation) of IPC may be a crucial factor to elicit the desired effect
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