The physiological responses to repeated upper-body sprint exercise in highly trained athletes

Purpose To study performance, physiological and biomechanical responses during repeated upper-body sprint exercise. Methods Twelve male elite cross-country skiers performed eight 8-s maximal poling sprints with a 22-s recovery while sitting on a modified SkiErg poling ergometer. Force, movement velocity, cycle rate, work per cycle, oxygen saturation in working muscles and pulmonary oxygen uptake were measured continuously. A 3-min all-out ergometer poling test determined V O 2peak , and 1 repetition maximum (1RM) strength was determined in a movement-specific pull-down. Results Average sprint power was 281 ± 48 W, with the highest power on the first sprint, a progressive decline in power output over the following four sprints, and a sprint decrement of 11.7 ± 4.1 %. Cycle rate remained unchanged, whereas work per cycle progressively decreased ( P