Cardiac Parasympathetic Reactivation Following Small-Sided Games, Repeated Sprints and Circuit Training in Elite Handball Players

IMPACTS OF HIGH-INTENSITY INTERVAL TRAINING ON PHYSICAL FITNESS IN HANDBALL

ABSTRACT Introduction: Handball is a competitive sport with high demands on the physical fitness of its athletes, being physical exercise demands continuous quality improvement of its practitioners. Objective: Explore the effect of high-intensity interval training on physical fitness in young handball players. Methods: In this paper, 46 young handball players were randomly selected for the research. The volunteers were randomly divided into two different groups: the experimental group and the control group. The control group mainly performed regular physical exercises. While the experimental group performed a protocol with high-intensity interval training. Both groups underwent a basic fitness test before and after the experiment. All experimental data were statistically analyzed and discussed. Results: After 12 weeks of experimental intervention, the experimental group showed significant differences in three items, namely reentry sensitivity, vertical jump, and long position jump (P<0.05). In the comparison between the groups, the scores in straight thrust and long jump were also significant (P<0.05). Conclusion: High-intensity interval training proved effective in improving young handball players’ physical fitness. Level of evidence II; Therapeutic studies - investigation of treatment outcomes.

Post-Exercise Hyperbaric Oxygenation Improves Recovery for Subsequent Performance

Background: The improvement of athletes' recovery seems crucial to maintaining a high-performance level. Since hyperbaric oxygenation (HBO) could be a valuable recovery method, this study aimed at determining the effects of post-exercise HBO at modest pressure (97% O₂; 1.3 ATA) on physiological response and subsequent cycling performance compared to passive recovery (PR; 21% O₂; 1 ATA). Methods: Twelve trained cyclists completed two testing sessions in a random crossover design. Both sessions consisted of one fatiguing exercise immediately followed by either HBO or PR recovery intervention (75 minutes), then a 5-minute maximal cycling effort. Cycling power output, heart rate variability (HRV) during recovery, blood lactate, and the rating of perceived exertion (RPE) were analyzed and compared between conditions. Results: Compared with PR, the cycling power output was significantly higher after HBO (307.5 ± 19.0 W vs 314.5 ± 19.3 W; p = .005; ES = 0.11 [-0.70-0.90]). Moreover, several HRV indices revealed an improvement in HRV recovery in HBO condition. Blood lactate was not significantly different between conditions, neither following the fatiguing exercise nor the maximal effort. HBO decreased RPE after maximal cycling effort and improved the perceived recovery the day after testing sessions (p < .001). Conclusion: This study suggests that HBO is an efficient strategy to improve cardiac parasympathetic reactivation and is beneficial for subsequent performance.

Post‐Exercise Cold‐ and Contrasting‐Water Immersion Effects on Heart Rate Variability Recovery in International Handball Female Players

This study aimed to investigate the effect of water immersion (WI) on cardiac parasympathetic reactivation during recovery from handball training sessions in elite female players during a two-week training camp. On the first three days of both weeks, players completed a crossover design with one of three 60-min delayed post-exercise WI protocols or passive rest (PAS). Recovery interventions consisted of a period of 6-min cold-WI (10°C; CWI₆) and two contrasting periods cold- and hot-WI (36°C): one session included 3 min cold + 2 min hot + 3 min cold and the other session 5 × 2 min with cold at the very end. Short-term measures of heart rate variability (HRV) were collected before and after handball training sessions, and after WI. Derived parasympathetic HRV indices collected daily showed lower values post-training compared to pre-training values (p < 0.0001, large ES). Individual handball training sessions revealed similar clear depression of the vagal tone throughout the training camp. The comparison between each WI protocol and PAS revealed significant time × condition interaction particularly for CWI₆. All parasympathetic indices revealed higher post-recovery values in CWI₆ than PAS (p < 0.001 –p < 0.0001, with large ES ranging from 0.86 to 0.94). Surprisingly, 60-min delayed post-training WI revealed for most of parasympathetic HRV indices higher values than pre-training. This study highlighted that post-exercise parasympathetic disruption was exacerbated in response to handball training, and the 60-min delayed WI recovery interventions improved parasympathetic reactivity. Cardiac vagal tone can be highly improved with CWI₆ compared to PAS. For the purpose of HRV modulations, CWI₆ is recommended for short-term recovery.