Boxing Practitioners Physiology Review: 3. Dietary Supplementation, Weight Control, Recovery and Altitude ()
ABSTRACT
The preceding parts of the review concerned kinanthropometric parameters, skeletal muscle recruitment, ergometry, systemic responses and adaptations. Main teachings of this third part of the whole review follow. At the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Game, most vitamin users (91 percent) were boxers. After 18 days of endurance training at the altitude of 1800 m, in boxers, 1) erythropoietin and reticulocytes values increased, 2) remained unchanged parameters of iron metabolism and maximal oxygen uptake values, 3) iron supplementation decreased total body hemoglobin values. Zinc supplementation and/or regularity while boxing influenced plasma levels of calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, phosphorus and zinc in boxers. Sodium bicarbonate ingestion increased punches frequency and time to fatigue in boxers. Boxing-induced thermal dehydration yielded 1) body and muscle masses decrease compensated by increased neural input to muscle, to maintain muscle strength, but 2) a 26.8 percent performance fall. In boxers, fluid and food intake restriction 1) changed neither blood vitamin status nor plasma glutathione levels, 2) yielded a) a negative mood profile and a performance decrease, when resulted in body mass fall by 5.16 percent but b) no performance decrease when fall was by three percent. Diet protein or protein and caloric components decrease increased, in boxers, protein catabolism and, for the same submaximal workload, heart rate and oxygen intake. In food-restricted boxers, myoprotein catabolism increased with decreasing meal intake frequency. Competition and no-competition boxers utilize massage. Massage increased perceptions of recovery after a whole boxing performance. High level of cardiorespiratory fitness accelerates recovery process between boxing rounds.