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Blood Volumes Following Preseason Heat Versus Altitude: A Case Study of Australian Footballers
- Source :
- International journal of sports physiology and performance.
- Publication Year :
- 2019
-
Abstract
- Purpose: There is debate as to which environmental intervention produces the most benefit for team sport athletes, particularly comparing heat and altitude. This quasi-experimental study aimed to compare blood volume (BV) responses with heat and altitude training camps in Australian footballers. Methods: The BV of 7 professional Australian footballers (91.8 [10.5] kg, 191.8 [10.1] cm) was measured throughout 3 consecutive spring/summer preseasons. During each preseason, players participated in altitude (year 1 and year 2) and heat (year 3) environmental training camps. Year 1 and year 2 altitude camps were in November/December in the United States, whereas the year 3 heat camp was in February/March in Australia after a full exposure to summer heat. BV, red cell volume, and plasma volume (PV) were measured at least 3 times during each preseason. Results: Red cell volume increased substantially following altitude in both year 1 (d = 0.67) and year 2 (d = 1.03), before returning to baseline 4 weeks postaltitude. Immediately following altitude, concurrent decreases in PV were observed during year 1 (d = −0.40) and year 2 (d = −0.98). With spring/summer training in year 3, BV and PV were substantially higher in January than temporally matched postaltitude measurements during year 1 (BV: d = −0.93, PV: d = −1.07) and year 2 (BV: d = −1.99, PV: d = −2.25), with year 3 total BV, red cell volume, and PV not changing further despite the 6-day heat intervention. Conclusions: We found greater BV after training throughout spring/summer conditions, compared with interrupting spring/summer exposure to train at altitude in the cold, with no additional benefits observed from a heat camp following spring/summer training.
- Subjects :
- Team sport
hypoxia
red cell volume
Summer heat
business.industry
010401 analytical chemistry
Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation
030229 sport sciences
Red cell volume
Plasma volume
01 natural sciences
environmental
0104 chemical sciences
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Animal science
Altitude
Altitude training
Medicine
Environmental intervention
Orthopedics and Sports Medicine
business
plasma volume
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15550273
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- International journal of sports physiology and performance
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....c6102b1d1ca1fab232849e9135b68f17