Physiological responses and competitive performance in elite synchronized swimming Lara Rodríguez Zamora ADVERTIMENT. La consulta d’aquesta tesi queda condicionada a l’acceptació de les següents condicions d'ús: La difusió d’aquesta tesi per mitjà del servei TDX (www.tdx.cat) i a través del Dipòsit Digital de la UB (diposit.ub.edu) ha estat autoritzada pels titulars dels drets de propietat intel·lectual únicament per a usos privats emmarcats en activitats d’investigació i docència. No s’autoritza la seva reproducció amb finalitats de lucre ni la seva difusió i posada a disposició des d’un lloc aliè al servei TDX ni al Dipòsit Digital de la UB. No s’autoritza la presentació del seu contingut en una finestra o marc aliè a TDX o al Dipòsit Digital de la UB (framing). Aquesta reserva de drets afecta tant al resum de presentació de la tesi com als seus continguts. En la utilització o cita de parts de la tesi és obligat indicar el nom de la persona autora. ADVERTENCIA. 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PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES AND COMPETITIVVE PERFORMANCE IN ELITE SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING Lara Rodríguez Zamora Front cover picture: Ona Carbonell Ballestero and Andrea Fuentes Fache from Spain compete during the women's duet synchronized swimming free routine at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Monday, Aug. 6, 2012. Photography by Michael Sohn Tesi per a l’obtenció del grau de Doctora per la Universitat de Barcelona Dissertation on account for the degree of Doctor by the Universitat de Barcelona PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES AND COMPETITIVE PERFORMANCE IN ELITE SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING Lara Rodríguez Zamora Directors / Supervisors Prof. Xavier Iglesias Reig Prof. Ferran A. Rodríguez Guisado Programa de Doctorat “Activitat Física, Educación Física i Esport” Institut Nacional d’Educació Física de Catalunya (INEFC) — Centre de Barcelona Universitat de Barcelona Barcelona 2013 Tesi per a l’obtenció del grau de Doctora per la Universitat de Barcelona, Institut Nacional d’Educació Física de Catalunya — Centre de Barcelona. PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES AND COMPETITIVE PERFORMANCE IN ELITE SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING Lara Rodríguez Zamora © L Rodríguez-Zamora, 2013 Institut Nacional d’Educació Física de Catalunya — Centre de Barcelona Spain Telephone +34 630457006 ii Worrying does NOT empty tomorrow of its sorrow It empties today of its strength - Corrie Ten Boom - iii iv PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES AND COMPETITIVE PERFORMANCE IN ELITE SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING Lara Rodríguez Zamora ABSTRACT Previous research investigating synchronized swimming (SS) from a physiological perspective has mainly used figures or fractionated and/or simulated routine protocols during training, although the nature of this sport leads to continuous, very demanding exercises (~2-4 minutes) performed at increasingly higher levels of intensity with almost 50% of this time underwater. In addition, different from training, competition is a challenging situation which usually stimulates higher psycho-physiological responses in the participant. Current knowledge is thus limited as regards physiological responses in competitive elite SS. Therefore, the overall aim of this dissertation is to investigate the physiological responses related to performance during the execution of competitive routines both during training and competitive sessions in elite synchronized swimmers. The dissertation is based on three studies (Studies I-III); all of them use the same protocol with continuous cardiovascular monitoring during the competitive routines, perceived exertion assessment after the executions, and blood lactate measurements (Study I and III). Study I characterized the physiological responses in relation to performance during an official competition. In Study II the execution of the duets in both conditions—training and competitive session—was used to compare the athletes’ internal load in order to ascertain whether swimmers may achieve the competitive intensity during training sessions, and Study III was performed to investigate how immersion periods, with the concomitant bradycardic events, affects perceived exertion with both physiological (HR) and subjective perceptual markers (RPE). The current thesis demonstrates that cardiovascular responses during competition are characterized by intense anticipatory pre-activation and rapidly developing tachycardia up to v maximal levels with interspersed periods of marked bradycardia during the exercise bouts performed in apnea (Studies I–III). During competitive routines, moderate blood lactate accumulation suggested the activation of the glycolytic metabolism in the exercising muscles and an adaptive metabolic response due to the specific training adaptations in this kind of athletes (studies I and III). Furthermore, competitive routines were perceived as very to extremely intense by all swimmers, likely reflecting not only the absolute exercise demands but also their previous experience and expectations (Studies I – III). In Study II, the internal load (HR and RPE) imposed by SS duets performed during training was virtually identical to that elicited in a real competitive situation due to the effects of automaticity—embodied through the replication of the same movement sequence in practice—, and by the swimmers’ long-term adaptations to specific routine exercise and apnea. There was a strong positive relationship between RPE and the duration and/or frequency of bradycardic events during routines (Studies II and III). In fact, the frequency and duration of immersions, the magnitude of subsequent bradycardic events, the blood lactate concentration, and the HR recovery during competitive SS routines explained 62% of the variance in perceived exertion, with cardiorespiratory factors providing a relatively greater neural input as compared to metabolic factors (Study III). Attending the relationships between physiological parameters and performance, the magnitude of anticipatory heart rate activation and bradycardic response explained 26% of variability in performance (Study I). In Study III this percentage rose to 53% when immersion parameters and the lactate concentration in blood were related, supporting the idea that an augmented diving response is associated with higher performance in SS. The results presented on this thesis suggest that the higher intensity and the more frequent and longer immersions would be associated with higher merit and performance results (I and III). Keywords: Apnea, breath holding, blood lactate, competition, diving response, heart rate, immersion, rating of perceived exertion, routine, synchronized swimming, training, elite athletes. vi LIST OF PAPERS This dissertation is mainly based on the following papers, herein referred to by their Roman numerals: Paper I Rodríguez-Zamora L, Iglesias X, Barrero A, Chaverri D, Erola P, Rodríguez FA. Physiological Responses in Relation to Performance during Competition in Elite Synchronized Swimmers. PLoS ONE, 2012;7(11):e49098. Paper II Rodríguez-Zamora L, Iglesias X, Barrero A, Torres-Ronda L, Chaverri D, Rodríguez FA. Monitoring internal load parameters during competitive synchronized swimming duet routines in elite athletes. J Strength Cond Res. (Accepted for publication 2013). Paper III Rodríguez-Zamora L, Iglesias X, Barrero A, Chaverri D, Irurtia A, Erola P, Rodríguez FA. Perceived exertion, time of immersion, and physiological correlates in synchronized swimming. Int J Sports Med. 2013. The published papers are reproduced with kind permission of the publisher. vii viii ABREVIATIONS BH Breath holding IMmax Longest time of immersion The highest post-exercise blood CNS Central nervous system La peak lactate concentration CO2 Carbon dioxide MIM Mean immersion time FS Free solo NIM Number of immersions Number of immersions longer than FD Free duet NIM>10 10 s FT Free team O2 Oxygen Percentage of the routine with