POST-MATCH LACTIC ACID CLEARANCE AND HEART RATE: DIFFERENCES BETWEEN WINNERS AND LOSERS

Abstract

During the high intensity matches, players engage in aggressive physical interactions to overcome their opponents and succeed. These competitions generally involve two teams and are characterized by prominent athleticism, great display of extraordinary skills and mental skills that have obvious energetic costs (e.g., lactate accumulation) which can affect subsequent behavior. Few studies have addressed these costs in exercise and simulated game situation. Moreover, recent studies suggest psychoneuroendocrine (catecholamines, endorphins and glucocorticoids) regulation of metabolism during and following aggressive episodes. There were two main questions addressed in this study. Do winners and losers show differences in post-match (45-min) levels of plasma lactate and heart rate? Are levels of plasma lactate correlated with heart rate recovery? For this purpose, 10 intervarsity hockey players were randomly selected from MLS University (mean VO 2 max=3.32 l/min (54.4 ml/kg/min)) and SGB University (mean VO2max=3.28 l/min (53.8 ml/kg/min)), (5 from each team). The data were collected during semifinal match of zonal intervarsity tournament. A group of 5 intervarsity hockey players from LNIPE, Gwalior (mean VO2max= 3.51 l/min) were used as control in the study. Anthropometric parameters and physical fitness were not correlated with levels of plasma lactate and heart rate as subjects were assumed to have identical physical fitness. At 45-min post-match, losers had significantly higher levels of mean plasma lactate (5.35mmol/l±0.308) and heart rate (77.947 b/m±2.077) when compared to levels in winners (3.714mmol/l±0.287,67.417b/m±2.102) and controls (3.784mmol/l±0.304, 68.037b/m±2.035), and there were no significant differences between winners and controls. From these results, following conclusions are recommended. First, elevated levels of blood lactate in losers, but not winners, result from psychoneuroendocrine factors rather than simple physical exertion, which retard metabolic recovery resulting in higher lactate levels, whereas winners return to pre-match lactate levels within 2h-3h post-match. Thus, the winners may clear blood lactate faster and seem to reflect positivity and accomplishment while losers show depression and submissive behavior. Article visualizations: