Yamakawa Keisuke Kobayashi, Sengoku Yasuo, Takagi Hideki
Institute of Health and Sport Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
Front Sports Act Living. 2025 Jul 24;7:1613966. doi: 10.3389/fspor.2025.1613966. eCollection 2025.
The aim of this study was to clarify the effect of different breathing frequencies with breath-holding on muscle activity and coordination during butterfly swimming in competitive swimmers. Eight national-level female swimmers participated in this study. They performed 25-m maximal butterfly swims with two breathing frequencies (task 1: swimming with the frontal breathing action for every stroke, and task 2: swimming while alternating the cycles with frontal breathing action and with breath-holding). From these tasks, the three different cycles (breathing cycle in task 1, breathing and breath-holding cycles in task 2) were analyzed. Surface electromyography was measured from 12 muscles of the right upper and lower limb, and trunk. A nonnegative factorization algorithm was used for muscle synergy analysis from the electromyographic data. Our results showed the activity timing for Triceps brachii, Deltoideus anterior, Latissimus dorsi, Biceps femoris and Gastrocnemius became earlier in the breath-holding cycle compared to those in the breathing cycle of task 1. However, the activity timing of all the muscles did not change between the breathing and breath-holding cycles of task 2. The number of muscle synergies was the same across the three cycles, except for one swimmer. The muscle combination of all the synergies was very similar across the three cycles. In contrast, the drive timing of the two synergies, which relate to the arm-pull movement and the first and second upward kicks, respectively, became earlier in the breath-holding cycle compared to those in the breathing cycle of task 1, while the drive timing did not change between the breathing and breath-holding cycles of task 2. These results suggest that the temporal characteristics of muscle activity and synergies are more influenced by different breathing frequencies than by frontal breathing action. Therefore, researchers should consider these effects when analyzing muscle activity during butterfly swimming.
本研究的目的是阐明不同呼吸频率并屏气对竞技游泳运动员蝶泳时肌肉活动和协调性的影响。八名国家级女子游泳运动员参与了本研究。她们以两种呼吸频率进行25米最大蝶泳（任务1：每划水一次进行前位呼吸动作；任务2：交替进行前位呼吸动作和屏气的循环）。从这些任务中，分析了三种不同的循环（任务1中的呼吸循环、任务2中的呼吸和屏气循环）。测量了右上肢、下肢和躯干12块肌肉的表面肌电图。使用非负因式分解算法对肌电图数据进行肌肉协同分析。我们的结果显示，与任务1的呼吸循环相比，在屏气循环中肱三头肌、三角肌前束、背阔肌、股二头肌和腓肠肌的活动时间提前。然而，在任务2的呼吸和屏气循环之间，所有肌肉的活动时间没有变化。除一名游泳运动员外，三个循环中的肌肉协同数量相同。所有协同的肌肉组合在三个循环中非常相似。相比之下，与划水动作以及第一次和第二次向上踢腿分别相关的两种协同的驱动时间，在屏气循环中比在任务1的呼吸循环中提前，而在任务2的呼吸和屏气循环之间，驱动时间没有变化。这些结果表明，肌肉活动和协同的时间特征受不同呼吸频率的影响大于前位呼吸动作。因此，研究人员在分析蝶泳时的肌肉活动时应考虑这些影响。
