Effects of Two Months Training on Blood Lactate Levels in Adolescent Swimmers

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the effects of two months swimming training on aerobic and anaerobic capacities with blood lactate. A total of 17 adolescent male swimmers (15.17 +/- 0.81 years) were included in the study. The first measurement was conducted 1.5 months after the beginning of the season and this was followed by a second measurement conducted two months after the first measurement. A test protocol of 8x100 m crawl style was applied in the measurements and the subjects swam from slow to fast at five different swimming workloads. Between each training run, blood samples were provided from the earlobes of the subjects in order to measure the amount of blood lactate. Heart rate was measured after five swims. Furthermore, swimming styles and duration were recorded in order to calculate the swimming speed of each subject at each swimming workload. The comparison of blood lactate and speed values of all subjects before and after the training season revealed that lactate acid values had not changed significantly (p>0.05) at the lowest swimming workload (75%) and that the speed had significantly increased (p<0.01). As for the rest of the swimming workloads, both lactate acid and speed increased significantly (p<0.05 and p<0.01). Our two month training programme dwelt heavily upon anaerobic training and accordingly aerobic capacity decreased and anaerobic capacity increased at higher speeds. On the other hand, in our study, we found out that anaerobic capacity had not increased only at the 75% workload and that it had decreased at the rest of the workloads.