Bouten Janne, Declercq Louise, Boone Jan, Brocherie Franck, Bourgois Jan G
Department of Movement and Sports Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Laboratory of Sport, Expertise and Performance (EA 7370), French Institute of Sport (INSEP), Paris, France.
Exp Physiol. 2024 Jul 19. doi: 10.1113/EP091905.
Acute breath-holding (apnoea) induces a spleen contraction leading to a transient increase in haemoglobin concentration. Additionally, the apnoea-induced hypoxia has been shown to lead to an increase in erythropoietin concentration up to 5 h after acute breath-holding, suggesting long-term haemoglobin enhancement. Given its potential to improve haemoglobin content, an important determinant for oxygen transport, apnoea has been suggested as a novel training method to improve aerobic performance. This review aims to provide an update on the current state of the literature on this topic. Although the apnoea-induced spleen contraction appears to be effective in improving oxygen uptake kinetics, this does not seem to transfer into immediately improved aerobic performance when apnoea is integrated into a warm-up. Furthermore, only long and intense apnoea protocols in individuals who are experienced in breath-holding show increased erythropoietin and reticulocytes. So far, studies on inexperienced individuals have failed to induce acute changes in erythropoietin concentration following apnoea. As such, apnoea training protocols fail to demonstrate longitudinal changes in haemoglobin mass and aerobic performance. The low hypoxic dose, as evidenced by minor oxygen desaturation, is likely insufficient to elicit a strong erythropoietic response. Apnoea therefore does not seem to be useful for improving aerobic performance. However, variations in apnoea, such as hypoventilation training at low lung volume and repeated-sprint training in hypoxia through short end-expiratory breath-holds, have been shown to induce metabolic adaptations and improve several physical qualities. This shows promise for application of dynamic apnoea in order to improve exercise performance. HIGHLIGHTS: What is the topic of this review? Apnoea is considered as an innovative method to improve performance. This review discusses the effectiveness of apnoea (training) on performance. What advances does it highlight? Although the apnoea-induced spleen contraction and the increase in EPO observed in freedivers seem promising to improve haematological variables both acutely and on the long term, they do not improve exercise performance in an athletic population. However, performing repeated sprints on end-expiratory breath-holds seems promising to improve repeated-sprint capacity.
急性屏气（呼吸暂停）会引发脾脏收缩，导致血红蛋白浓度短暂升高。此外，已有研究表明，急性屏气后长达5小时内，因屏气引起的缺氧会导致促红细胞生成素浓度升高，提示长期血红蛋白增加。鉴于屏气有提高血红蛋白含量（氧气运输的一个重要决定因素）的潜力，有人提出屏气作为一种新型训练方法来提高有氧运动能力。本综述旨在提供该主题当前文献状态的最新信息。尽管屏气引起的脾脏收缩似乎能有效改善氧摄取动力学，但当屏气融入热身时，这似乎并未立即转化为有氧运动能力的提高。此外，只有在有屏气经验的个体中进行长时间、高强度的屏气方案，才会出现促红细胞生成素和网织红细胞增加。到目前为止，针对无经验个体的研究未能在屏气后诱导促红细胞生成素浓度的急性变化。因此，屏气训练方案未能证明血红蛋白量和有氧运动能力的纵向变化。低氧剂量，如轻微的氧饱和度下降所证明的，可能不足以引发强烈的促红细胞生成反应。因此，屏气似乎对提高有氧运动能力没有帮助。然而，屏气的变体，如低肺容量时的低通气训练和通过短暂呼气末屏气在低氧环境下进行的重复冲刺训练，已被证明可诱导代谢适应并改善多种身体素质。这显示了动态屏气在提高运动表现方面的应用前景。要点：本综述的主题是什么？屏气被视为提高运动表现的创新方法。本综述讨论了屏气（训练）对运动表现的有效性。它突出了哪些进展？尽管在自由潜水者中观察到屏气引起的脾脏收缩和促红细胞生成素增加似乎有望在急性和长期内改善血液学变量，但它们并不能提高运动员群体的运动表现。然而，在呼气末屏气时进行重复冲刺似乎有望提高重复冲刺能力。
