Physiological changes of teenage girls during five months of detraining

Abstract

Ten girls from a high school track team were tested during the first, third, fifth, seventh and twenty-third week post-training using a 3 minute step test and a treadmill ran. The heart rate response to the light work of the step test and the light 2 and 4% grade treadmill runs increased significantly by the third week of detraining, The absolute values of ventilation, oxygen uptake and oxygen debt did not change with any of the work efforts, nor did the heart rate with the near maximal 6% run on the treadmill. The oxygen cost during the treadmill runs and the total cost including the O2 debt were unaffected during 23 weeks detraining. The only change seen in ventilation or oxygen uptake responses was in the increased ventilation at any oxygen uptake level. The ventilation required at 2 l/min Vo2 was 48 l/min at test 1 and rose to a high of 54 l/min at the seventh week of detraining. The heart rate response at a particular workload was similarly changed since at 2 l/min Vo2 the rate increased from 177 to 190/min by the seventh week of detraining. The changes that did occur were always greatest in the first 7 weeks of detraining.