Apnoea as a novel method to improve exercise performance: A current state of the literature.
breath‐hold
erythropoietin
exercise performance
haemoglobin
spleen contraction
voluntary hypoventilation
Journal
Experimental physiology
ISSN: 1469-445X
Titre abrégé: Exp Physiol
Pays: England
ID NLM: 9002940
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
19 Jul 2024
19 Jul 2024
Historique:
received:
18
04
2024
accepted:
25
06
2024
medline:
20
7
2024
pubmed:
20
7
2024
entrez:
20
7
2024
Statut:
aheadofprint
Résumé
Acute breath-holding (apnoea) induces a spleen contraction leading to a transient increase in haemoglobin concentration. Additionally, the apnoea-induced hypoxia has been shown to lead to an increase in erythropoietin concentration up to 5 h after acute breath-holding, suggesting long-term haemoglobin enhancement. Given its potential to improve haemoglobin content, an important determinant for oxygen transport, apnoea has been suggested as a novel training method to improve aerobic performance. This review aims to provide an update on the current state of the literature on this topic. Although the apnoea-induced spleen contraction appears to be effective in improving oxygen uptake kinetics, this does not seem to transfer into immediately improved aerobic performance when apnoea is integrated into a warm-up. Furthermore, only long and intense apnoea protocols in individuals who are experienced in breath-holding show increased erythropoietin and reticulocytes. So far, studies on inexperienced individuals have failed to induce acute changes in erythropoietin concentration following apnoea. As such, apnoea training protocols fail to demonstrate longitudinal changes in haemoglobin mass and aerobic performance. The low hypoxic dose, as evidenced by minor oxygen desaturation, is likely insufficient to elicit a strong erythropoietic response. Apnoea therefore does not seem to be useful for improving aerobic performance. However, variations in apnoea, such as hypoventilation training at low lung volume and repeated-sprint training in hypoxia through short end-expiratory breath-holds, have been shown to induce metabolic adaptations and improve several physical qualities. This shows promise for application of dynamic apnoea in order to improve exercise performance. HIGHLIGHTS: What is the topic of this review? Apnoea is considered as an innovative method to improve performance. This review discusses the effectiveness of apnoea (training) on performance. What advances does it highlight? Although the apnoea-induced spleen contraction and the increase in EPO observed in freedivers seem promising to improve haematological variables both acutely and on the long term, they do not improve exercise performance in an athletic population. However, performing repeated sprints on end-expiratory breath-holds seems promising to improve repeated-sprint capacity.
Types de publication
Journal Article
Review
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Subventions
Organisme : Research Foundation Flanders
ID : 1144519N
Organisme : Agence Nationale de le Recherche
ID : ANR-20- STPH-002
Informations de copyright
© 2024 The Author(s). Experimental Physiology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Physiological Society.
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