Cardiorespiratory Responses to Specific and Nonspecific Exercise in High-Profile Amateur Boxers

Venckunas, T, Bruzas, V, Stasiulis, A, Snieckus, A, Mockus, P, and Kamandulis, S. Cardiorespiratory responses to specific and non-specific exercise in high-profile amateur boxers. J Strength Cond Res 36(3): 717-722, 2022-Our aim was to compare cardiorespiratory responses in 3 types of all-out exercises (upper body, lower body, and punching) in well-trained boxers and peak heart rate (HR) in these tests with HR response to competitive Olympic boxing. On 4 separate occasions, 11 male amateur boxers performed: (a) progressive treadmill running to exhaustion; (b) progressive arm cranking to failure; (c) progressive bag punching to maximal exertion; and (d) competitive boxing fight (3 × 3 minutes format). Expired gas and HR were measured in all tasks except in the full-contact competitive fight where only HR was recorded. Peak oxygen uptake (55.3 ± 5.9 ml·kg-1·min-1) was highest during treadmill running. Peak respiratory exchange ratio was highest during bag punching (1.26 ± 0.09), but did not differ between arm cranking and running. Peak HR of the boxing fight (197.7 ± 5.9 b·min-1) did not differ from that of running (196.5 ± 8.7 b·min-1), but was smaller in arm cranking (179.8 ± 9.2) and bag punching (184.1 ± 12.2 b·min-1). The correlation coefficients between peak HR achieved during competitive fighting and that achieved during running, arm cranking and bag punching were 0.720 (p = 0.013), 0.597 (p = 0.052), and 0.702 (p = 0.035), respectively. In conclusion, in high-profile amateur boxers, running evoked a higher cardiorespiratory activation than arm cranking or bag punching, whereas punching elicited the highest input of anaerobic glycolysis. Peak HR of competitive fighting was the same as during running and much higher than during arm cranking or bag punching.