The effect of altitude training on physiological variables of endurance athletes in Ethiopia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15391/prrht.2024-9(5).09Keywords:
Vo2max, resting heart rate, breath holding time, systolic blood pressure, mean arterial pressure.Abstract
Purpose. Moderate-altitude training is widely accepted to enhance sports performance, particularly for endurance athletes, more than low-altitude training despite the lack of rigorous scientific studies at a project level in Ethiopia. This study aims to identify the effect of varied altitude training on physiological variables at varied altitudes in young project trainees in Ethiopia.
Material and methods: A quasi-experimental, particularly counterbalanced study design was employed using 15 male endurance project trainees, 5 individuals from each training center whose ages ranged from 16 to 20 years. Pre and posttests on Vo2max, heart rate at rest, breath holding time, systolic blood pressure, and mean arterial pressure were made in early morning sessions in their training centers using standardized instruments from 6:00 -8:00 AM.
Results: The moderate-altitude trainees had better mean scores in Vo2max, systolic blood pressure, and breath-holding capacity, but in resting heart rate and mean arterial pressure, the low-altitude trainees were better than the moderate-altitude trainees. However, all training centers showed an improvement in mean score difference, but the result indicates no significant difference (P>0.05) between the moderate and low-altitude project training trainees.
Conclusion: The results show that training at various altitudes has distinct effects on endurance athletes' Vo2max, systolic blood pressure, breath-holding capacity, resting heart rate, and mean arterial pressure. This emphasizes how crucial it is to create customized training plans to maximize output and recuperation. These findings are significant for athletes and coaches who want to use altitude training techniques to improve endurance training results.
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