2007 ACSM Annual Meeting - Acute Strategies

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Members may enjoy reading the following:

Betaine, Hyperventilation, Hyperimmune Egg Protein and Other

Novelties for Performance at the 2007 ACSM Annual Meeting

Will G Hopkins

Sportscience 11, 1-8, 2007 (sportsci.org/2007/wghACSM.htm)

Acute Strategies

http://sportsci.org/2007/wghACSM.htm

Hyperventilation before a swimming time trial improved performance

time by an amazing 2.3% over 100 yd and 1.0% over 400 yd in 20

competitive swimmers [1981]. The effect seems to be due at least

partly to a reduction in breathing during the swims.

An ankle-length " long-johns " swimsuit might increase 200-m freestyle

swimming speed by ~1% [1431], but why did the researchers stop at

only 6 competitive swimmers?

Warming up the respiratory muscles improved 200-m swimming time-trial

time by 1.2% in 8 elite swimmers [1435]. No details of the usual and

respiratory warm-ups are given in the abstract, and I missed the

poster.

Twelve trained female volleyball players who warmed up with PNF

(proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation) increased jump height by

2.6% relative to no warm-up, whereas two other warm-ups involving

jumping produced gains of only 1.3% [1438].

Although the author claimed no significant difference, closer

inspection revealed that warm-ups at moderate and high intensity

produced substantial improvements of 1.0% and 1.9% in mean power in a

1-min test relative to a warm-up at low intensity in 11 trained male

cyclists [2408].

Static stretching impaired the acceleration and maximum speed phases

of sprinting in 20 elite female soccer players [1440]. Static or

dynamic stretching tended to impair jump height in 12 female

volleyball players [1441]. So don't stretch for volleyball.

In an unusual investigation of short-term recovery, 22 competitive

athletes did two sets of three 30-s cycling sprints (Wingates)

morning and again in the afternoon either with a treatment consisting

of a cocktail of antioxidant vitamins, ibuprofen, cold-water

submersion, and whey protein or in crossover fashion with none of

these, as a control [1835]. Performance in the afternoon session was

2-4% better on the cocktail and plasma creatine kinase (a marker of

muscle damage) was 9% less the next morning. The author told me he

is now investigating each component separately...

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Carruthers

Wakefield, UK