Effects of single session transcranial direct current stimulation on aerobic performance and one arm pull-down explosive force of professional rock climbers

Abstract

Objective: To explore the effects of single-session transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on aerobic performance and explosive force in the one-arm pull-down of long-term trained rock climbers.Method: Twenty athletes (twelve male and eight female) from the Rock Climbing Team of Hunan province (Hunan, China) were selected for a randomized double-blind crossover study. After baseline tests, All subjects visited laboratories twice to randomly receive either sham or a-tDCS at a current intensity of 2 mA for 20 min. The two visits were more than 72 h apart. Immediately after each stimulation, subjects completed a 9-min 3-level-load aerobic test and a one-arm pull-down test.Results: Differences in the heart rate immediately after 9-min incremental aerobic exercises revealed no statistical significance between each group (p > 0.05). However, the decrease in heart rate per unit time after exercise after real stimulation was significantly better than before stimulation (p < 0.05), and no statistical significance was observed between after sham stimulation and before stimulation (p > 0.05). One-arm pull-down explosive force on both sides after real stimulation was improved by a-tDCS compared with before stimulation, but with no significant difference (p > 0.05). Real stimulation was significantly improved, compared with sham stimulation on the right side (p < 0.05).Conclusion: Single-session tDCS could potentially benefit sports performance in professional athletes.

Effects of anodic transcranial direct current stimulation combined with physical training on the performance of elite swimmers

“…Grandperrin et al tested participants for vertical jump explosiveness and found that a-tDCS intervention increased the vertical jumping ability of athletes (Grandperrin et al, 2020). Luo et al tested 92 rock climbers with 9 min of incremental aerobic exercise and single-arm pull-down and found that a-tDCS improved the single-arm pull-down explosive power in rock climbers (Luo et al, 2023b Frontiers in Physiology frontiersin.org 20 healthy men to an a-tDCS intervention and measured surface electromyography of the rectus femoris and biceps femoris, which showed that the diameter of the rectus femoris and biceps femoris was significantly higher after real stimulation than after sham stimulation (Lu et al, 2021). Thng et al explored how to improve the level of swimming departure found that swimming departure performance was almost perfectly correlated (r > 0.90) with vertical jump height (Thng et al, 2019); therefore, the present study also included the level of swimming departure in the explosive strength level test.…”

“…Grandperrin et al tested participants for vertical jump explosiveness and found that a-tDCS intervention increased the vertical jumping ability of athletes ( Grandperrin et al, 2020 ). Luo et al tested 92 rock climbers with 9 min of incremental aerobic exercise and single-arm pull-down and found that a-tDCS improved the single-arm pull-down explosive power in rock climbers ( Luo et al, 2023b ). Lu et al randomly assigned 20 healthy men to an a-tDCS intervention and measured surface electromyography of the rectus femoris and biceps femoris, which showed that the diameter of the rectus femoris and biceps femoris was significantly higher after real stimulation than after sham stimulation ( Lu et al, 2021 ).…”

“…This instrument has a total weight of less than 2 kg, is easy to carry, and consists of headphones similar to conventional headphones. It delivers a variable DC of up to 2 mA across the scalp via surface electrodes ( Brunoni et al, 2012 ) using 7 cm × 5 cm electrode sheets with a current intensity adjustment range of 0 ∼ 5 mA and a maximum voltage of 20 V ( Luo et al, 2023a ).…”