Repeatability of ventilatory, metabolic and biomechanical responses to an intermittent incremental swimming protocol

Abstract

Objective. This study aimed to determine the repeatability of ventilatory, metabolic and biomechanical variables assessed at a large spectrum of front crawl swimming intensities. We hypothesized a strong agreement (combined with a small range of variation) between a typical step protocol performed in two experimental moments. Approach. Forty competitive swimmers performed a 7 × 200 m front crawl intermittent incremental protocol (0.05 m·s−1 velocity rises and 30 s intervals) on two different occasions (48–72 h apart). Pulmonary gas exchange and ventilation were continuously measured breath-by-breath, metabolic variables were assessed during the intervals and biomechanical analysis was done at every protocol step. Main results. Concomitantly with the velocity increment, oxygen uptake, carbon dioxide production, ventilation, respiratory frequency, respiratory exchange ratio, averaged expiratory concentrations, end tidal oxygen and ventilatory equivalents for oxygen and carbon dioxide and blood lactate concentrations rose (p < 0.001), averaged expiratory concentrations and end tidal carbon dioxide and duration of inspiration, expiration and total breathing cycle decreased (p < 0.001), while tidal volume and volumes of oxygen and carbon dioxide expired maintained constant. Stroke frequency and stroke length increased and decreased (respectively) with the swimming velocity raise. No differences between experimental moments were observed in most of the assessed variables (p > 0.05), with a low dispersion (0.49%–9.94%) except for lactate concentrations and inspiration and expiration durations (11.00%–17.16%). Moderate-nearly perfect direct relationships and a good-excellent degree of reliability between moments were verified for all the assessed variables (r = 0.50–1.00, ICC = 0.76–1.00, p < 0.001), except for respiratory exchange ratio. Significance. The reliability analysis confirmed the repeatability of the assessed ventilatory, metabolic and biomechanical variables, with the obtained data well representing swimmers physiological condition when monitoring performance through a commonly used step protocol.