Concurrent training enhances athletes' cardiovascular and cardiorespiratory measures

We evaluated the effects of concurrent strength and aerobic endurance training on cardiovascular and cardiorespiratory adaptations in college athletes and compared two concurrent exercise (CE) protocols. Separate experiments were performed on 30 women (mean age 19.6 years) and 20 men (20.4 years). In both experiments, subjects were divided into two groups (serial CE and integrated CE) matched for initial physical condition and trained in a vigorous 3-day per week CE program of 9 (men) to 11 (women) weeks. The two CE training protocols were equilibrated for exercise mode, intensity, and volume, differing only in the timing and sequence of exercises. During training, serial CE discernibly (p < 0.05) increased cardiovascular adaptation in women, indicated by reduction (-5.7%) in active heart rate (HR) (HR/aerobic exercise intensity), whereas integrated CE discernibly reduced active HR in women (-10.7%) and men (-9.1%). Before and after comparisons in the larger sample of women showed that serial CE discernibly reduced systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP) (-8.7% and -14.0%, respectively), increased estimated [latin capital V with dot above]o2max (18.9%), and produced a trend (0.10 > p > 0.05) toward reduced resting HR (-4.9%). Integrated CE in women discernibly reduced systolic and diastolic BP (-13.2% and -12.6%, respectively), increased estimated [latin capital V with dot above]o2max (22.9%), and produced a trend toward reduced resting HR (-2.4%). Integrated CE produced discernibly larger gains than serial CE or a trend for four of six training adaptations. Effect sizes were generally large (60.0% of discernible differences). We conclude that, for cardiovascular and cardiorespiratory adaptations in athletes, strength and endurance training are compatible and that exercise timing and sequence significantly influence training adaptations, complimenting our previous similar conclusions for strength, muscle endurance, body composition, and flexibility.