The effect of recovery combination on muscle oxygenation, blood lactate concentration, and subsequent performance during 200-m repeated swimming

Abstract

This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of three recovery protocols on muscle oxygenation, blood lactate, and subsequent performance during a 200-m repeated swimming. Twelve swimmers (6 females and 6 males) from Chulalongkorn University swimming club completed three sessions of two consecutive 200-m front crawl trials separated by one of three recovery protocols: a 15-min of active recovery (AR), a 15-min of passive recovery (PR), and a recovery combination of 5-min of active and 10-min of passive recovery (CR) by using a counterbalance design. Skeletal muscle oxygenation, blood lactate concentration (BL), arterial oxygen saturation (SaO2), and heart rate (HR) were measured at rest, immediately after a trial, and at 5, 10, and 15 minutes of recovery. Two-way ANOVA (recovery x time) with repeated measures was used to determine the main and interaction effects on measured variables. One-way ANOVA followed by Tukey test were used to locate the mean differences.in all variables. A level of significant was set at p-value <.05. The results revealed no significant changes in swimming time observed between trials (first vs. second) across recovery conditions. Tissue saturation index (TSI), as an indicator of oxygenated tissue, rapidly declined (P < .05) immediately after a 200-m front crawl swim, and then gradually returned (P < .05) to above baseline during CR, but not AR and PR after 15-min of recovery. Oxyhemoglobin (O2Hb) levels at biceps femoris significantly decreased (P < .05) while deoxyhemoglobin (HHb) levels significantly increased (P < .05) immediately after a 200-m swim compared with baselines in all conditions. These changes, however, were recovered (P < .05) as early as after 5-min of recovery, regardless of conditions, with a fully return to baseline observed after 15-min of recovery. Interestingly, the significant reductions in blood lactate and heart rate were concomitant with the change in TSI during the recovery period. Our results indicated that the CR in the present study was more effective in enhancing the muscle reoxygenation after a 200-m front crawl swim compared with AR and PR. However, such benefit was not directly translated to the improvement of subsequent performance.