Spirometry improvement after muscular exercise in elite swimmers

BACKGROUND: An increased sympathetic activity during muscular effort is a well established physiological response, whose intensity is known to increase with the muscular load. Spirometry was described to improve as an effect of swimming training in healthy and asthmatic subjects, suggesting a decrease in airway resistance The aim was to investigate the possible effect of muscular exercise (swimming) on spirometry, in particular searching for possible differences because of different swimming times. METHODS: The measurements were performed on 9 highly trained male competitive swimmers (age: 41±12.79 years, height: 1.69±0.06 meters, weight: 66.14±14.28 kg, BMI: 22.8±3.61 kg/m2) during an official competition. The data were collected at the border of the swimming-pool before (control, C) and few minutes after the swimming sessions (exercise, E), which consisted either of 800 meter (7 subjects) or 1500 meter (5 subjects) free style. RESULTS: A general trend indicating a postexercise increa...