24-hr Urinary Catecholamine Excretion, Training and Performance in Elite Swimmers

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of training variations on 24-hr urinary noradrenaline (NA) and adrenaline (Ad) levels and the adrenaline/noradrenaline (Ad/NA) ratio to search for a possible relationship between catecholamine excretion, training, and performance in highly trained swimmers. Fourteen swimmers (5 female and 9 male) were tested after 4 weeks of intense training (IT), 3 weeks of reduced training (RT), and 5 weeks of low training (LT). At the end of each period, the swimmers performed their best event at an official competition. Individual performances were expressed as percentage of the previous season's best performance. The changes in NA levels after 4 weeks of IT were negatively related to changes in training volume (r=-0.70, p<0.01) and total training load (r=-0.68, p<0.02). NA levels measured at the end of IT were positively related to changes in performance after three weeks of RT (r=0.77, p<0.01). The percentage changes in performance between RT and LT were related to NA levels at the end of RT (r=0.60; p<0.04). Ad/NA ratios and Ad were related to performance (r=0.58, p<0.01; r=52, p<0.01; respectively). The differences in Ad/NA ratios and Ad between two consecutive competitions were related to the differences in performance (r=0.59, p<0.01; r=0.49, p<0.01; respectively). 24-hr NA and the Ad/NA excretion ratio were related to both training variations and performance. Thus, 24-hr NA levels and Ad/NA ratio may provide useful markers for monitoring training stress in elite swimmers.

Effects of Tapering on Performance

“…In fact, a possible placebo effect can interact with a natural tendency to go deeper during the last performance test and lead to an overestimation of taperinduced performance gains. It should be noted, however, that 10 of the 27 studies included in this meta-analysis used competition data (2,17,18,20,22,31,40,42,43,48), where motivation to give an all-out effort was probably the same for each test because, in addition to the competitive stake, they were part of a more global competition schedule. Moreover, the 17 remaining studies used field-based performance tests that have been shown to be very reliable (1,50,61,65), thus limiting the error of measurement.…”

“…Criterion for study exclusion was that the set of data has been previously published in another article that has already been included in the present analyses (5 articles). A total of 27 studies were included in the analysis (2)(3)(4)8,14,(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)22,26,(29)(30)(31)(32)34,35,40,42,43,48,51,52,54,63,70).…”

Evaluation and Opportunities in Overtraining Approaches

“…A main issue of including nontraining stressors is whether the definitions resulted in a change in observed markers of OT. Until now, there was Downloaded by [University of Tasmania] at 13:04 29 September 2015 an abundance of physiological parameters concerning autonomic, stress-related, immunological, hormonal, and metabolic responses (Baumert et al, 2006;Knopfli et al, 2001;Platen, 2002), with psychoemotional parameters cited as additional markers (Atlaoui et al, 2006;Baumert et al, 2006;Coutts et al, 2007;Nederhof et al, 2007;Tenenbaum et al, 2003).…”

“…The authors also postulated that sufficient recovery time (at least 2 weeks) was necessary to establish OT development (Kreider et al, 1998). However, while several definitions of OT were used more recently, they still emphasized only the training load-recovery imbalance (Atlaoui, et al, 2006;Baumert et al, 2006;Knopfli, Calvert, Bar-Or, Villiger, & Von Duvillard, 2001;Nederhof, Lemmink, Zwerver, & Mulder, 2007;Portier, Louisy, Laude, Berthelot, & Guezennec, 2001). Other definitions included nontraining stressors (Coutts, Wallace, & Slattery, 2007;Tenenbaum et al, 2003).…”

Effect of multiple oral doses of androgenic anabolic steroids on endurance performance and serum indices of physical stress in healthy male subjects

“…Changes in resting plasma and/or urinary catecholamines (adrenalin and noradrenalin) have been suggested as possible tools for monitoring the impact of training load and/or overload (Lehmann et al 1997;Mackinnon et al 1997). It has also been shown that excretion of catecholamines is correlated with training load (Atlaoui et al 2006) and emotional stress (Lehmann et al 1988). Between the three measured catecholamines, only noradrenalin seems to be inXuenced by eVort as an increase is observed for the T group.…”