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Ventilatory endurance in athletes: a family study
International Journal of Sports Medicine
|May 1, 1982
Summary
Endurance athletes show better breathing endurance than untrained siblings. This suggests that enhanced ventilatory endurance in athletes is primarily a result of consistent training, not genetics.
Area of Science:
- Physiology
- Exercise Science
Background:
- Endurance athletes exhibit superior ventilatory capacity.
- The role of training versus genetics in this enhanced capacity is not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether superior breathing endurance in endurance athletes is a result of training.
- To compare the ventilatory endurance of trained athletes with their untrained siblings.
Main Methods:
- Two tests of seated isocapnic hyperpnea were conducted.
- Athletes and untrained siblings performed tests involving voluntary ventilation increments and sustained maximal voluntary ventilation (MVV).
Main Results:
- Athletes sustained a significantly higher fraction of their 12-s MVV before exhaustion compared to siblings (75% vs. 62%).
- Athlete endurance time at 80% of 12-s MVV was double that of untrained siblings (7 min vs. 3 min).
Conclusions:
- The findings suggest that elevated ventilatory endurance in athletes is primarily acquired through training.
- The lack of similar endurance in family clusters supports the training hypothesis over a genetic predisposition.