Changes in Ventilatory Response to Exercise in Trained Athletes: Respiratory Physiological Benefits Beyond Cardiovascular Performance.

Introduction: The beneficial impact of an 8-month competitive season on the ventilatory profile response to exercise in soccer players has never been evaluated.
Material and Methods: Ventilatory profile (evaluated by determining individual tidal volume [V _T ] relative to minute ventilation [V _E ] inflection points during exercise) and metabolic responses to incremental exercise were evaluated in 2 professional soccer teams before and after an 8-month competitive season.
Results: No differences between teams in anthropometric characteristics or in resting cardiopulmonary variables, included oxygen uptake (VO ₂ ) and heart rate (HR), before and during the competitive season were found. At iso-speed, there were overall improvements in carbon dioxide output (VCO ₂ ), V _E /VO ₂ , V _E /VCO ₂ , V _E and respiratory frequency (fR) during the season. The V _T /V _E inflection points 1 and 2 occurred with greater exercise time, HR, VO ₂ , VCO ₂ , V _E and V _T during the competitive season.
Conclusions: Despite very high baseline performance and a negligible improvement in VO ₂ , an 8-month competitive season improved ventilatory profile response to exercise in elite athletes.
(Copyright © 2016 SEPAR. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)