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The Journal of Experimental Biology 205, 3937-3943 (2002)
Copyright © 2002 The Company of Biologists Limited

Hyperpnea training attenuates peripheral chemosensitivity and improves cycling endurance

Michael E. McMahon¹, Urs Boutellier¹, Richard M. Smith² and Christina M. Spengler^1,*

¹ Exercise Physiology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
² John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

^* Author for correspondence (e-mail: spengler{at}physiol.unizh.ch)

Accepted 16 September 2002

Well-trained endurance athletes frequently have a lower peripheral chemoreceptor (pR_c) sensitivity and a lower minute ventilation (E) during exercise compared to untrained individuals. We speculated that the decreased pR_c response may be specifically associated with repeated exposure to the high rates of ventilation occurring during exercise training. We therefore examined the effect of respiratory muscle training (RMT; 20x 30 min sessions of voluntary normocapnic hyperpnea) on the pR_c sensitivity during exercise and on cycling performance. RMT was chosen to achieve a high E, similar to that of heavy exercise, while avoiding the other accompanying effects of whole body exercise. 20 trained male cyclists were randomized into RMT (N=10) or control (N=10) groups. Subjects' pR_c response was assessed by a modified Dejours O₂ test (10-12 breaths of 100% O₂, repeated 4-6 times) during cycling exercise at 40% of the maximal work capacity (_max). Cycling performance was measured during a cycling test to exhaustion (85% _max). The RMT group exhibited a significantly reduced pR_c sensitivity (mean ± S.D.) compared to the control group (-5.8±6.0% versus 0.1±4.6%, P<0.5). Cycling endurance improved significantly after RMT in comparison to the control group (+3.26±4.98 versus -1.46±3.67 min, P<0.05). However, these changes in pR_c response were not significantly correlated with exercise ventilation or cycling endurance time. We conclude that the high levels of ventilation achieved during exercise, as simulated by RMT in this study, appear to be accompanied by a reduction in pR_c sensitivity; however, the role of the pR_c in the control of ventilation during exercise seems to be minor.

Key words: respiratory muscle endurance training, carotid body, control of breathing, hyperpnea, exercise, human

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