Acute effect of oxygen inhalation before competition on recovery of buffering capacity and performance of male professional karate

Increasing active muscle oxygen availability can affect exercise performance, therefore the oxygen supplementation can be considered as important factor. This study aimed to investigate the acute effect of oxygen inhalation before karate competition on buffering capacity recovery and performance of male professional karate.

Eight national karate athletes with weight categories 75 (BMI: 23.45±1.24 kg/m2) and 85 (BMI: 25.93 ± 1.97 kg/m2) Kg participated in this study as a double-blind cross design and further divided into two groups of oxygen (10 minutes, 40% of oxygen concentration,10 liters per minute) and natural (mask attached to a normal air cylinder). Thirty minutes before, immediately and 20 minutes after the three-minute competition, venous blood sampling was obtained and lactate was measured enzymatically by Kubas Mira autoanalyzer. Moreover, the acidity (PH), oxygen saturation (O2-SAT), pressure of carbon dioxide (PCO2) and bicarbonate (HCO3- ) were analyzed by blood gas analyzer. Heart rate and the number of strokes were also measured to assess performance. Repeated measures two way- ANOVA and LSD test was used to analyze the data at p≤0.05 level.

The result indicated significantly lower reduction of lactate and higher amount of HCO3-  in the oxygen than to non-oxygen group during the three evaluation times (p=0.001). Moreover, higher acidity, lower PCO2   and O2-SAT, as well as lower average heart rate were observed in the oxygen than to non-oxygen group but it wasn’t significant (p0.05<) Oxygen inhalation significantly improved hand and foot stroke performance in the oxygen compared to non-oxygen group (p=0.004).

Acute inhalation of oxygen before karate competition does not seem to have a significant effect on the buffer capacity recovery of karate athletes, although it could improves athlete performance in the same competition.