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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Exercise Physiology
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2024.1451738

The effects of six sprint interval training sessions on muscle oxygenation and swimming performance in untrained swimmers

Provisionally accepted
Athanasios A. Dalamitros Athanasios A. Dalamitros 1,2*Tzivanis Dimitrios Tzivanis Dimitrios 1Alexandra Martin-Rodriguez Alexandra Martin-Rodriguez 3Eleni Semaltianou Eleni Semaltianou 1Mavridis Georgios Mavridis Georgios 1Manou Vasiliki Manou Vasiliki 1
  • 1 School of Physical Education and Sports Science, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece
  • 2 Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Central Macedonia, Greece
  • 3 European University of Madrid, Villaviciosa de Odón, Madrid, Spain

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The current study examined the changes in muscle oxygenation values and swimming performance after six sessions of sprint interval training during a three-week period in untrained swimmers. Twelve swimmers of both genders (age: 23.5±5.6yrs) executed the twice-weekly experimental training protocol (EXP, n=12), consisting of a 4 x 50m front-crawl swimming (repeated sprint training - RST) with maximal intensity, and two minutes of passive recovery in between, after a short in-water warm-up. The control group (CON, n=9) performed a continuous swimming set (200m) at 120 b∙pm-1, with the same weekly frequency. Performance times in two maximum swim trials (400m: T400 and 50m: T50), muscle oxygenation of the deltoid muscle (SmO2) immediately after T400 and T50, 1-minute heart rate recovery (HRR1) after T400, T50, and swim strokes during both swim trials (S/T400, S/T50) were assessed. For the EXP group, T400 improved by 2.4 (p=0.011). In contrast, T50 presented no significant improvement (1%, p>0.05). SmO2 decreased at T400 (5.5%, p=0.017) and increased at T50 (3.7%, p=0.030). HRR1 improved after T400 (7.9%, p=0.002), T50 (4.6%, p=0.005) and RST (9.6%, p=0.002). S/T400 and S/T50 remained relatively unchanged (p > 0.05). The CON group presented no significant changes in any of the variables examined. In conclusion, six sprint interval training sessions can improve aerobic capacity over a 3-week training period, as indicated by the enhanced T400 performance and the reduced HRR1 values, in previously trained swimmers. Finally, the sensitivity of the near-infrared spectroscopy method to detect short-term training-induced changes is highlighted.

    Keywords: sprint intervals, muscle oximetry, short training period, Field testing, Swimming

    Received: 19 Jun 2024; Accepted: 21 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Dalamitros, Dimitrios, Martin-Rodriguez, Semaltianou, Georgios and Vasiliki. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Athanasios A. Dalamitros, School of Physical Education and Sports Science, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece

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