Use of NIRS to explore skeletal muscle oxygenation during different training sessions in professional boxing

The physiological examination of boxing has been limited to systemic response in amateur athletes. The demands of professional boxing have been overlooked, despite the different competition format. We sought to determine the physiological demands placed on skeletal muscle in professional boxing.

Ten male professional boxers (age 26 ± 5 years, height 177 ± 4 cm, weight 71 ± 6 kg) were recruited for this observational study. On different days, the athletes completed 6 × 3 min rounds of pad, bag or spar-based training with 1 min recovery between each round. Prior to each session, participants put on a heart rate monitor and near-infrared spectroscopy attached to the belly of the rectus femoris muscle to record heart rate and muscle oxygenation.

There were significantly less punches thrown in sparring compared to other training modalities (p < 0.001). Skeletal muscle oxygenation across training modalities consisted of a delay, fast desaturation and steady state. Across rounds there was a significant increase in time delay for desaturation (p = 0.016), rate of fast desaturation (p < 0.001) and duration of fast desaturation (p = 0.019). There was a significant difference in sparring for the heart rate where skeletal muscle oxygenation changes occurred compared to pads or bag sessions (p < 0.001).

The findings highlight differences in the skeletal muscle response to the different training modalities. Practitioners need to be aware of the muscular demands of each session to allow optimal adaptation across a training camp. Training needs to allow the skeletal muscle to achieve a new oxygenation steady state rapidly to promote efficient performance across rounds.