The Effect of Incremental Preseason Endurance Training on the Rate of Anemia in Professional Female Athletes

This study tried to determine the effect of 13 weeks of incremental endurance training on anemia. 15 professional female athletes with average exercise record (3-5 years), age (17.1± 3.2), height (163±5.4), weight (50±3.3) and BMI (20.2±1.2) performed a protocol of endurance training four times a week, each time 90 minutes with an intensity of 65-90% of maximal heart rate for 13 weeks. Variables included hemoglobin, mean corpuscular volume, hematocrit and total iron binding capacity. The participant's blood samples were gathered at rest 48 hours before the first training session and 48 hours after the training session. The data were analyzed by dependent t-test and the results showed that endurance running training had no significant effect on athletic anemia and no significant difference was observed between pre and post laboratory tests in blood index (P>0.05).