Training Organization, Physiological Profile and Heart Rate Variability Changes in an Open-water World Champion

Abstract

This case study reports the training of an elite 25-km open-water swimmer and the daily heart rate variability (HRV) changes during the 19-week period leading to his world champion title. Training load was collected every day and resting HRV was recorded every morning. The swimmer’s characteristics were V̇O2max: 58.5 ml·min−1·kg−1, maximal heart rate: 178 beats per minute, and maximal ventilation: 170 L·min−1. Weekly training volume was 85±21 km, 39±8% was at [La]b<2 mmol · L−1 (Z1), 53±8% was at [La]b 2–4 mmol·L−1 (Z2), and 8±4% was at [La]b>4 mmol·L−1 (Z3). In the supine position, the increase in training volume and Z2 training were related to increases in rMSSD and HF. In the standing position, an increase in parasympathetic activity and decrease in sympathetic activity were observed when Z1 training increased. Seasonal changes indicated higher values in the LF/HF ratio during taper, whereas higher values in parasympathetic indices were observed in heavy workload periods. This study reports extreme load of an elite ultra-endurance swimmer. Improvements in parasympathetic indices with increasing Z2 volume indicate that this training zone was useful to improve cardiac autonomic activity, whereas Z1 training reduced sympathetic activity.

Daily Resting Heart Rate Variability in Adolescent Swimmers during 11 Weeks of Training

“…Bearing in mind that our subjects were young but otherwise well-trained swimmers who were expected to cope well with individual programs adapted to their age, gender, training history, and ability level, the data suggest that observed fluctuations in HRV are of practical value in sports training. Similar results have been observed in a number of studies that required extended cardiac demands in response to endurance exercise training [16,29,32]. For instance, alterations in resting autonomic function as reflected by changed HRV have been associated with functional overreaching in triathletes [33] or injury incidence in swimmers [15].…”

“…The data obtained in the present study support the current understanding that HRV monitoring does not allow the separation and classification of different subcategories of stress, but may be useful in helping the practitioner to recognize the overall fatigue level [26,27]. It is quite well established that one of the most popular HRV indexes, lnRMSSD, decreases considerably in response to extreme loading, reflecting decreased vagal (parasympathetic) heart control, and this is often associated with athlete fatigue and impaired performance [2,7,16,[28][29][30][31]. Our study found that during the days when training volume was high, lnRMSSD on the following morning was lower than weekend values.…”

“…As reviewed by Koenig et al [12], although HRV monitoring in swimming may have some beneficial outcomes, it is also recognized that there is a lack of translational approaches to apply the current evidence to general practice. Several recent studies demonstrated the relationships between the autonomic nervous system, performance, and fatigue, showing that HRV responses appeared to depend on the training status, age, and environmental factors of the athletes [13][14][15][16][17]. However, the vastly different populations and contexts of these studies create uncertainty about the interpretation of their findings, which may partly explain why sport practitioners are still reluctant to incorporate HRV monitoring into their arsenal of training tools.…”

Elaboração E Validação De Cartilha Sobre O Método Ikodomô No Karate-Dô Para Crianças De Três a Cinco Anos

“…Nos últimos anos a VFC tem sido muito estudada como ferramenta de controle de intensidade, predição de performance e interpretação das respostas fisiológicas na natação (PLA et al, 2019;KOENING et al, 2014;MERATI et al, 2014;CLEMENTE-SUÁRES;ARROYO-TOLEDO, 2018;EDMONDS, 2015). Além da sua importância, é um método usado nas ciências do esporte de mensuração simples, direto e não-invasivo, tanto para análise em repouso e durante o exercício físico.…”

Cardiac Autonomic Modulation in Response to Muscle Fatigue and Sex Differences During Consecutive Competition Periods in Young Swimmers: A Longitudinal Study

“…Interestingly, it is very well known that during training and competition, muscle fatigue is generated, and it has been proposed that this fatigue could play a pivotal role in the cardiac autonomic response of an athlete ( Buchheit et al, 2011 ; Mayo et al, 2016 ). Indeed, low-intensity training for long periods and short high-intensity exercises with long recovery periods seems to be a stronger modulator of cardiac autonomic response swimmers’ athletes during training ( Clemente-Suárez and Arroyo-Toledo, 2018 ; Pla et al, 2019 ). In this sense, recovery of parasympathetic discharge is modulated by training intensity, with delay for recovery ANS/HRV in athletes exercised at and above the first ventilatory threshold ( Seiler et al, 2007 ).…”