Increase of the Amount of Hemoglobin and Blood Volume in Connection with Physical Training

Abstract

Summary. In the present paper we report on an investigation in which the amount of hemoglobin determined after the method of SJÖSTRAND (1948) in a number of athletically trained men and women has been compared with that in an average group of the respective sexes. The athletically trained men and women showed considerably higher amounts of hemoglobin and blood volumes than the average material. On the whole, the best trained men deviated by 41%, and the women by 44% from the reference material. In three men and one woman the amount of hemoglobin was determined just before and immediately after a skiing tour in the mountains. The figures were 10–19 per cent higher after the training than before. In a patient who had been confined to bed for a considerable length of time (owing to fracture of the leg) the amount of hemoglobin was determined repeatedly. It showed a successive decrease, amounting at its maximum to 15 per cent of. the original figure. The amount of hemoglobin and blood volume seems accordingly to vary with the degree of physical training. The costs of the investigation have in part been defrayed by a grant from the Therese and Johan Andersson Memorial Fund.