EFFECTS OF REPEATED-SPRINT TRAINING IN HYPOXIA ON PHYSICAL PERFORMANCE OF TEAM SPORTS PLAYERS

ABSTRACT Introduction: The traditional hypoxic training program used by endurance athletes was included in the training of team and/or racquet sports players. Objective: The aim of this study is to analyse the effect of a new lower dose of repeated-sprint training in hypoxia (RSH) as compared with previous studies on short and long-term physical performance of team sports players. Methods: Tests were performed before and after four weeks of supervised specific training and after two weeks of detraining. Twenty-four team-sport players voluntarily participated in the study (age: 22.73±2.87 years; weight: 70.20±3.42 kg; height: 176.95±1.63 cm; BMI: 22.42±2.26 kg/m2); the participants were randomly assigned to the RSH training group (n=8; FiO2= 14.6%), to the normoxia group (RSN) (n=8; FiO2= 20.9%) or to a third control group (CON) (n=8). The participants performed eight training sessions of two sets of five 10-second repeated sprints, with a recovery period of 20 seconds between sprints and a recovery period of 10 minutes at 120 W between sets. Body composition was measured following standard anthropometric evaluation procedures. The Wingate Test, Repeated-Sprint Ability Test, SJ, CMJ and Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test were used to evaluate aerobic and anaerobic outcomes. Results: In the hypoxia group, maximal power increased by 14.96% and the total number of sprints performed increased by 20.36%, both with a large effect size (ES=0.78 and ES = 0.71, respectively). Conclusion: A lower dose of repeated-sprint training in hypoxia produces improvements in maximal power and number of sprints in the hypoxia group, in team sports players, as shown by the large effect size in both cases. Level of evidence II; Comparative prospective study.