Influence of Hyperoxic-Supplemented High-Intensity Interval Training on Hemotological and Muscle Mitochondrial Adaptations in Trained Cyclists

Abstract

Background: Hyperoxia (HYPER) increases O 2 carrying capacity resulting in a higher O 2 delivery to the working muscles during exercise. Several lines of evidence indicate that lactate metabolism, power output, and endurance are improved by HYPER compared to normoxia (NORM). Since HYPER enables a higher exercise power output compared to NORM and considering the O 2 delivery limitation at exercise intensities near to maximum, we hypothesized that hyperoxic-supplemented high-intensity interval training (HIIT) would upregulate muscle mitochondrial oxidative capacity and enhance endurance cycling performance compared to training in normoxia. Methods: 23 trained cyclists, age 35.3 ± 6.4 years, body mass 75.2 ± 9.6 kg, height 179.8 ± 7.9 m, and VO 2 max 4.5 ± 0.7 L min −1 performed 6 weeks polarized and periodized endurance training on a cycle ergometer consisting of supervised HIIT sessions 3 days/week and additional low-intensity training 2 days/week. Participants were randomly assigned to either HYPER (F I O 2 0.30; n = 12) or NORM (F I O 2 0.21; n = 11) breathing condition during HIIT. Mitochondrial respiration in permeabilized fibers and isolated mitochondria together with maximal and submaximal VO 2 , hematological parameters, and self-paced endurance cycling performance were tested pre- and posttraining intervention. Results: Hyperoxic training led to a small, non-significant change in performance compared to normoxic training (HYPER 6.0 ± 3.7%, NORM 2.4 ± 5.0%; p = 0.073, ES = 0.32). This small, beneficial effect on the self-paced endurance cycling performance was not explained by the change in VO 2 max (HYPER 1.1 ± 3.8%, NORM 0.0 ± 3.7%; p = 0.55, ES = 0.08), blood volume and hemoglobin mass, mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation capacity (permeabilized fibers: HYPER 27.3 ± 46.0%, NORM 16.5 ± 49.1%; p = 0.37, ES = 3.24 and in isolated mitochondria: HYPER 26.1 ± 80.1%, NORM 15.9 ± 73.3%; p = 0.66, ES = 0.51), or markers of mitochondrial content which were similar between groups post intervention. Conclusions: This study showed that 6 weeks hyperoxic-supplemented HIIT led to marginal gain in cycle performance in already trained cyclists without change in VO 2 max, blood volume, hemoglobin mass, mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation capacity, or exercise efficiency. The underlying mechanisms for the potentially meaningful performance effects of hyperoxia training remain unexplained and may raise ethical questions for elite sport.

The effects of continuous vs intermittent oxygen supplementation on repeat sprint cycling performance

“…Power responses in the HH and NN conditions were as expected, whereby the full oxygen condition resulted in greater performance (albeit non-significant) than the normoxia condition (NN) (Balsom et al, 1994;Cardinale et al, 2019;Porter et al, 2019). Performance decline followed a similar trend across each condition until sprint 6, when HH condition stabilises.…”

Assessing mitochondrial respiration in permeabilized fibres and biomarkers for mitochondrial content in human skeletal muscle

“…Consequently, the use of permeabilized muscle fibres with high-resolution respirometry has become the most common method to measure mitochondrial respiration in human skeletal muscle. 6,17,18 However, despite its widespread use in human exercise training studies, 5,[19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] and the several studies conducted to assess factors that might contribute to technical and/or biological variation, [32][33][34] uncertainty remains regarding the reliability of this method. As such, additional research is needed to establish the reliability of mitochondrial respiration measures using permeabilized muscle fibres with high-resolution respirometry.…”

Methodological considerations when assessing mitochondrial respiration and biomarkers for mitochondrial content in human skeletal muscle

“…Consequently, the use of permeabilized muscle fibres with highresolution respirometry has become the most common method to measure mitochondrial respiration in human skeletal muscle [6,17,18]. However, despite its widespread use in human exercise training studies ( [5,[19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31], and several studies have been conducted to assess factors that might cause technical and/or biological variation [32][33][34], uncertainty remains regarding the reliability of this method. As such, additional research is needed to establish the reliability of mitochondrial respiration measures using permeabilized muscle fibres with high-resolution respirometry.…”