Abstract
To date, measurements of oxygen status during swim exercise have focused upon systemic aerobic capacity. The development of a portable, waterproof NIRS device makes possible a local measurement of muscle hemodynamics and oxygenation that could provide a novel insight into the physiological changes that occur during swim exercise. The purpose of this study was to observe changes in muscle oxygenation in the vastus lateralis (VL) and latissimus dorsi (LD) of club level swimmers and triathletes. Ten subjects, five club level swimmers and five club level triathletes (three men and seven women) were used for assessment. Swim group; mean ± SD = age 21.2 ± 1.6 years; height 170.6 ± 7.5 cm; weight 62.8 ± 6.9 kg; vastus lateralis skin fold 13.8 ± 5.6 mm; latissimus dorsi skin fold 12.6 ± 3.7. Triathlete group; mean ± SD = age 44.0 ± 10.5 years; height 171.6 ± 7.0 cm; weight 68.6 ± 12.7 kg; vastus lateralis skin fold 11.8 ± 3.5 mm; latissimus dorsi skin fold 11.2 ± 3.1. All subjects completed a maximal 200 m freestyle swim, with the PortaMon, a portable NIR device, attached to the subject’s dominant side musculature. ΔTSI % between the vastus lateralis and latissimus dorsi were analysed using either paired (2-tailed) t-tests or Wilcoxon signed rank test. The level of significance for analysis was set at p < 0.05. No significant difference (p = 0.686) was found in ΔTSI (%) between the VL and LD in club level swimmers. A significant difference (p = 0.043) was found in ΔTSI (%) between the VL and LD in club level triathletes. Club level swimmers completed the 200 m freestyle swim significantly faster (p = 0.04) than club level triathletes. Club level swimmers use both the upper and lower muscles to a similar extent during a maximal 200 m swim. Club level triathletes predominately use the upper body for propulsion during the same exercise. The data produced by NIRS in this study are the first of their kind and provide insight into muscle oxygenation changes during swim exercise which can indicate the contribution of one muscle compared to another. This also enables a greater understanding of the differences in swimming techniques seen between different cohorts of swimmers and potentially within individual swimmers.
Keywords
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Aspenes ST, Karlsen T (2012) Exercise-training intervention studies in competitive swimming. Sports Med 42:527–543
Roels B, Gimenes AC, Nascimmento RB et al (2005) Specificity of Vo2max and the ventilatory threshold in free swimming and cycle ergometry: comparison between triathletes and swimmers. Br J Sports Med 39:965–968
Toussaint HM (1990) Differences in propelling efficiency between competitive and triathlon swimmers. Med Sci Sports Exerc 22:409–415
Costa MJ, Bragada JA, Marinho DA et al (2012) Longitudinal interventions in elite swimming: a systematic review based on energetics, biomechanics, and performance. J Strength Cond Res 26:2006–2016
Pyne DB, Lee H, Swanwick KM (2001) Monitoring the lactate threshold in world-ranked swimmers. Med Sci Sports Exerc 33:291–297
Libicz S, Roels B, Millet GP (2005) Responses to intermittent swimming sets at velocity associated with max. Can J Appl Physiol 30:543–553
Reis V, Marinho D, Policarpo F et al (2010) Examining the accumulated oxygen deficit method in front crawl swimming. Int J Sports Med 31:421–427
Reis JF, Alves FB, Bruno PM et al (2012) Effects of aerobic fitness on oxygen uptake kinetics in heavy intensity swimming. Eur J Appl Physiol 112:1689–1697
Hesford CM, Laing SJ, Cardinale M et al (2012) Asymmetry of quadriceps muscle oxygenation during elite short-track speed skating. Med Sci Sports Exerc 44:501–508
Szmedra L, Nioka S, Chance B et al (2001) Hemoglobin/myoglobin oxygen desaturation during Alpine skiing. Med Sci Sports Exerc 33:232
Buchheit M, Ufland P, Haydar B et al (2011) Reproducibility and sensitivity of muscle reoxygenation and oxygen uptake recovery kinetics following running exercise in the field. Clin Physiol Funct Imaging 31:337–346
Wang B, Tian Q, Zhang Z et al (2012) Comparisons of local and systemic aerobic fitness parameters between finswimmers with different athlete grade levels. Eur J Appl Physiol 112:567–578
Suzuki S, Takasaki S, Ozaki T et al (1999) Tissue oxygenation monitor using NIR spatially resolved spectroscopy. Proc SPIE 3597:582–592
Bravo DM, Gimenes AC, Nascimento RB et al (2012) Skeletal muscle reoxygenation after high-intensity exercise in mitochondrial myopathy. Eur J Appl Physiol 112:1763–1771
Fulton SK, Pyne DB, Burkett B (2009) Quantifying freestyle kick-count and kick-rate patterns in Paralympic swimming. J Sport Sci 27:1455–1461
Acknowledgments
We like to especially thank all the athletes and swim coaches for their time and effort during this study.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media, New York
About this paper
Cite this paper
Jones, B., Cooper, C.E. (2016). Underwater Near-Infrared Spectroscopy: Muscle Oxygen Changes in the Upper and Lower Extremities in Club Level Swimmers and Triathletes. In: Elwell, C.E., Leung, T.S., Harrison, D.K. (eds) Oxygen Transport to Tissue XXXVII. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 876. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3023-4_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3023-4_4
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-3022-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-3023-4
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)