This brief review summarizes factors associated with elite endurance performance, trends in distance running training, and participation by men and more recently women. It is framed in the context of ...key ideas about the physiological determinants of endurance performance but also touches on some historical and sociological factors relevant to the overall topic. Historical trends that served to increase women's participation in elite endurance events are also discussed as is the role of increased volume and intensity of training. The rapid improvement in women's world record marathon times in the 1970s and 80s are emblematic of these trends and represent a combination of increased training volume and intensity and more competitive opportunities. This occurred as bans on participation by women in endurance events were lifted. For men these same trends evolved over a much longer time frame. The main physiological factor responsible for 10–12% slower times in women compared to men at the elite level are also considered and probably centre aroundV̇O2 max .
Marathon world records over the last ∼100 years demonstrate some of the social and physiological factors that explain sex differences in human endurance exercise performance.
This review focuses on how blood flow to contracting skeletal muscles is regulated during exercise in humans. The idea is that blood flow to the contracting muscles links oxygen in the atmosphere ...with the contracting muscles where it is consumed. In this context, we take a top down approach and review the basics of oxygen consumption at rest and during exercise in humans, how these values change with training, and the systemic hemodynamic adaptations that support them. We highlight the very high muscle blood flow responses to exercise discovered in the 1980s. We also discuss the vasodilating factors in the contracting muscles responsible for these very high flows. Finally, the competition between demand for blood flow by contracting muscles and maximum systemic cardiac output is discussed as a potential challenge to blood pressure regulation during heavy large muscle mass or whole body exercise in humans. At this time, no one dominant dilator mechanism accounts for exercise hyperemia. Additionally, complex interactions between the sympathetic nervous system and the microcirculation facilitate high levels of systemic oxygen extraction and permit just enough sympathetic control of blood flow to contracting muscles to regulate blood pressure during large muscle mass exercise in humans.
Integrative biology of exercise Hawley, John A; Hargreaves, Mark; Joyner, Michael J ...
Cell,
11/2014, Letnik:
159, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Exercise represents a major challenge to whole-body homeostasis provoking widespread perturbations in numerous cells, tissues, and organs that are caused by or are a response to the increased ...metabolic activity of contracting skeletal muscles. To meet this challenge, multiple integrated and often redundant responses operate to blunt the homeostatic threats generated by exercise-induced increases in muscle energy and oxygen demand. The application of molecular techniques to exercise biology has provided greater understanding of the multiplicity and complexity of cellular networks involved in exercise responses, and recent discoveries offer perspectives on the mechanisms by which muscle "communicates" with other organs and mediates the beneficial effects of exercise on health and performance.
Seven Questions for Personalized Medicine Joyner, Michael J; Paneth, Nigel
JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association,
2015-Sep-08, Letnik:
314, Številka:
10
Journal Article
Humans vary in their ‘natural ability’ related to sports performance. One facet of natural ability reflects so-called intrinsic ability or the ability to do well with minimal training. A second facet ...of natural ability is how rapidly an individual adapts to training; this is termed trainability. A third facet is the upper limit achievable after years of prolonged intense training; this represents both intrinsic ability and also trainability. There are other features of natural ability to consider, for example body size, because some events, sports, or positions favor participants of different sizes. In this context, the physiological determinants of elite endurance performance, especially running and cycling, are well known and can be used as a template to discuss these general issues. The key determinants of endurance performance include maximal oxygen uptake
(
V
˙
O
2
max
)
, the lactate threshold, and running economy (efficiency in the case of cycling or other sports). In this article, I use these physiological determinants to explore what is known about the genetics of endurance performance. My main conclusion is that at this time there are very few, if any, obvious relationships between these key physiological determinants of performance and DNA sequence variation. Several potential reasons for this lack of relationship will be discussed.
In humans, exercise training and moderate to high levels of physical activity are protective against cardiovascular disease.
In fact they are â¼40% more protective than predicted based on the ...changes in traditional risk factors (blood lipids, hypertension,
diabetes etc.) that they cause. In this review, we highlight the positive effects of exercise on endothelial function and
the autonomic nervous system. We also ask if these effects alone, or in combination, might explain the protective effects
of exercise against cardiovascular disease that appear to be independent of traditional risk factor modification. Our goal
is to use selected data from our own work and that of others to stimulate debate on the nature and cause of the ârisk factor
gap' associated with exercise and physical activity.
Endurance exercise training studies frequently show modest changes in VO2max with training and very limited responses in some subjects. By contrast, studies using interval training (IT) or combined ...IT and continuous training (CT) have reported mean increases in VO2max of up to ~1.0 L · min(-1). This raises questions about the role of exercise intensity and the trainability of VO2max. To address this topic we analyzed IT and IT/CT studies published in English from 1965-2012. Inclusion criteria were: 1)≥ 3 healthy sedentary/recreationally active humans <45 yrs old, 2) training duration 6-13 weeks, 3) ≥ 3 days/week, 4) ≥ 10 minutes of high intensity work, 5) ≥ 1:1 work/rest ratio, and 6) results reported as mean ± SD or SE, ranges of change, or individual data. Due to heterogeneity (I(2) value of 70), statistical synthesis of the data used a random effects model. The summary statistic of interest was the change in VO2max. A total of 334 subjects (120 women) from 37 studies were identified. Participants were grouped into 40 distinct training groups, so the unit of analysis was 40 rather than 37. An increase in VO2max of 0.51 L · min(-1) (95% CI: 0.43 to 0.60 L · min(-1)) was observed. A subset of 9 studies, with 72 subjects, that featured longer intervals showed even larger (~0.8-0.9 L · min(-1)) changes in VO2max with evidence of a marked response in all subjects. These results suggest that ideas about trainability and VO2max should be further evaluated with standardized IT or IT/CT training programs.
The latest SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern Omicron, with its immune escape from therapeutic anti-Spike monoclonal antibodies and WA-1 vaccine-elicited sera, demonstrates the continued relevance of ...COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP) therapies. Lessons learnt from previous usage of CCP suggests focusing on early outpatients and immunocompromised recipients, with high neutralizing antibody titer units. Here, we systematically review Omicron-neutralizing plasma activity data, and report that approximately 47% (424/902) of CCP samples from unvaccinated pre-Omicron donors neutralizes Omicron BA.1 with a very low geometric mean of geometric mean titers for 50% neutralization GM(GMT
) of ~13, representing a > 20-fold reduction from WA-1 neutralization. Non-convalescent subjects who had received two doses of mRNA vaccines had a GM(GMT50) for Omicron BA.1 neutralization of ~27. However, plasma from vaccinees recovering from either previous pre-Omicron variants of concern infection, Omicron BA.1 infection, or third-dose uninfected vaccinees was nearly 100% neutralizing against Omicron BA.1, BA.2 and BA.4/5 with GM(GMT(
)) all over 189, 10 times higher than pre-Omicron CCP. Fully vaccinated and post-BA.1 plasma (Vax-CCP) had a GM(GMT
) > 450 for BA.4/5 and >1,500 for BA.1 and BA.2. These findings have implications for both CCP stocks collected in prior pandemic periods and for future plans to restart CCP collections. Thus, Vax-CCP provides an effective tool to combat ongoing variants that escape therapeutic monoclonal antibodies.
Fatigue and functionality in cerebral palsy Joyner, Michael J.
Developmental medicine and child neurology,
April 2023, 2023-04-00, 20230401, Letnik:
65, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
This commentary is on the original article by Verschuren et al. https://doi.org/10.1111/dmcn.15421
Efforts to understand human physiology through the study of champion athletes and record performances have been ongoing for
about a century. For endurance sports three main factors â maximal oxygen ...consumption , the so-called âlactate thresholdâ and efficiency (i.e. the oxygen cost to generate a give running speed or cycling power
output) â appear to play key roles in endurance performance. and lactate threshold interact to determine the âperformance â which is the oxygen consumption that can be sustained for a given period of time. Efficiency interacts with the performance
to establish the speed or power that can be generated at this oxygen consumption. This review focuses on what is currently
known about how these factors interact, their utility as predictors of elite performance, and areas where there is relatively
less information to guide current thinking. In this context, definitive ideas about the physiological determinants of running
and cycling efficiency is relatively lacking in comparison with and the lactate threshold, and there is surprisingly limited and clear information about the genetic factors that might pre-dispose
for elite performance. It should also be cautioned that complex motivational and sociological factors also play important
roles in who does or does not become a champion and these factors go far beyond simple physiological explanations. Therefore,
the performance of elite athletes is likely to defy the types of easy explanations sought by scientific reductionism and remain
an important puzzle for those interested in physiological integration well into the future.