Delayed Effects of Remote Limb Ischemic Preconditioning on Maximum Oxygen Consumption, Lactate Release and Pulmonary Function Tests in Athletes and non-Athletes

Remote Ischemic Preconditioning (RIPC) improves exercise performance, and since this phenomenon has two phases, the aim of the current study was to investigate the delayed effects of remote ischemic preconditioning on cardiopulmonary function in athletes and non-athletes.
25 male and female students were studied in two main athletes and non-athletes groups. RIPC was induced by using 3 cycles of alternative 5 minutes ischemia and 5 minutes reperfusion at arms of participants. Cardiopulmonary tests were measured before, after and 24 hours after inducing remote ischemic preconditioning. Maximum oxygen consumption (VO2max) estimated by using queen steps test.
Analysis of data demonstrated that delayed RIPC in non-athletes group caused significant improvement in Forced Expiratory Volume in one second (FEV1) and Maximum Voluntary Ventilation (MVV) and noticeable improvement in some other parameters of pulmonary function tests. Moreover, it decreased systolic blood pressure and heart rate and decreased lactate release in both groups especially athletes group but it had no significant effect on VO2max of both groups.
Delayed RIPC improves cardiovascular function of athletes and pulmonary function of non-athletes subjects. Thus, it can be considered as a good replacement for doping to improve sports performance of subjects in sports tournaments.