Physiological responses during the practice of synchronized swimming: a systematic review

Summary This study is aimed at analysing the scientific literature related to physiological responses in synchronized swimmers, produced from 2006 to 2016. A systematic review was conducted using electronic databases (Google Scholar, PubMed, SportDiscus, Web Science, Scielo and Scopus) in national and international journals. The articles were selected using the following inclusion criteria: composed samples of synchronized swimmers of both sexes, articles in English, Spanish and Portuguese, published from 2006 to 2016. Ten studies were included. The concentration of the articles and their publication was as follows: Europe (77%) and North America (23%). The protocols used analyse physiological responses in synchronized swimmers athletes during competitions or laboratory tests, lactate measurements, heart rate, rates of perceived exertion, VO2 and lung volume. The subjects of 100% of the studies included in this review were athletes of junior and senior categories who volunteered. Only 03 of the 10 studies have compared the physiological responses in volunteers who were not synchronized swimmers to synchronized swimmer athletes. The studies were conducted using different methodologies, which makes it difficult to compare them, so the standardization of instruments and definitions is essential for the scientific advancement in this field. In addition, it would be interesting to expand the research of these physiological responses in synchronized swimmers using base level or beginners as sample.