Abstract
The influence of a series of ten sauna baths (MPHA) on thermophysiological and selected hematological responses in 14 elite cross-country skiers to a submaximal endurance exercise test performed under thermoneutral environmental conditions was studied. Thermal and physiological variables were measured before and after the exercise test, whereas selected hematological indices were studied before, immediately after, and during recovery after a run, before (T1) and after sauna baths (T2). MPHA did not influence the baseline internal, body, and skin temperatures. There was a decrease in the resting heart rate (HR: p = 0.001) and physiological strain (PSI: p = 0.052) after MPHA and a significant effect of MPHA on systolic blood pressure (p = 0.03), hematological indices, and an exercise effect but no combined effect of treatments and exercise on the tested variables. A positive correlation was reported between PSI and total protein (%ΔTP) in T2 and a negative between plasma volume (%ΔPV) and mean red cellular volume (%ΔMCV) in T1 and T2 in response to exercise and a positive one during recovery. This may suggest that MPHA has a weak influence on body temperatures but causes a moderate decrease in PSI and modifications of plasma volume restoration in response to exercise under temperate conditions in elite athletes.
Highlights
Introduction published maps and institutional affilHeat acclimation (HA) is a method of increasing an athlete’s efficiency for training and competition activity in hot [1,2,3,4] and thermoneutral conditions [2,5,6,7,8]
We reported that similar quantities of protein were added to the vascular volume in both the control and the MPHA groups after the exercise test; changes in the athlete’s blood serum proteome, conditioning the modification of serum differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) profiles in the session held after sauna treatments, were stronger than those in the session not preceded by treatments [86]
The current findings suggest that the changes achieved after MPHA associated with moderate increases in PV and MCV may help to maintain the plasma volume stability during submaximal exercise and the cardiovascular stability, promoting a smaller overall physiological strain during exercise under temperate conditions
Summary
Heat acclimation (HA) is a method of increasing an athlete’s efficiency for training and competition activity in hot [1,2,3,4] and thermoneutral conditions [2,5,6,7,8]. Heat acclimation is the effect of systematic, artificial exposure of the body to frequent, continuous, or intermittent heat [9], which has an impact on physiological and hematological indices of individuals and can induce numerous physiological adjustments [1,10,11], including: a reduction in resting core body temperature [10,12,13,14], resting heart rate [6,15], an increase in cutaneous heat loss, a greater sweat rate and skin blood flow, as well as lower core temperature thresholds for activating thermoeffectors [4,16].
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