The Effect Of Eight-week Sprint Interval Training On Aerobic Ability Of Elite Female Badminton Players

Because of the fast ball speed, high swing frequency and short intervals, the badminton event requires athletes to complete fast running, sudden start or stop, change of direction and continuous high-intensity multiple shots on the field. There are high requirements for athletes' aerobic capacity. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of 8-week Sprint Interval Training (SIT) on enhancing the aerobic exercise ability of female badminton athletes from the perspective of oxygen transport and utilization. METHODS: Sixteen elite female badminton players were selected and random divided into experimental group (SIT group) and control group (CON group). The SIT group underwent three sprint interval trainings per week, including two power bike trainings and one multi-ball training. The CON group performed two Fartlek runs and one regular shuttlecock-feeding training per week for a total of eight weeks. Before and after intervention, the two groups of athletes were tested for aerobic capacity via YO-YO IR2, maximal oxygen uptake, lactate clearance rate, and the arterial occlusion muscle oxygen content test performed by Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) instrument. Subsequently, players' muscle oxygen consumption and other related parameters were compared between two groups using repeated-measures ANOVA, considering pre-post effect. RESULTS: The running distance of YO-YO IR2 of SIT group increased from 725 ± 132.9 m to 840 ± 126.5 m (p < 0.05). The VT-VO2 of SIT group increased from 1940.1 ± 112.8 ml/min to 2176.9 ± 78.6 ml/min (p < 0.05), VT/VO2max increased from 75 ± 4% to 82 ± 4% (p < 0.05), and the lactate clearance rate was raised from 21 ± 5% to 27 ± 4% (p < 0.05). The ΔO2Hb of SIT group decreased from 4.8 ± 0.5 μm to 4.4 ± 0.5 μm (p < 0.05), the oxygen consumption of muscle decreased from 0.62 ± 0.06 mlO2/min/100 g to 0.57 ± 0.06 mlO2/min/100 g (p < 0.05), and the full recovery time of O2Hb declined from 9.99 ± 1.9 s to 9.44 ± 1.5 s (p < 0.05), O2Hb over-recovery increased from 4.79 ± 0.5 μm to 5.19 ± 0.6 μm (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: SIT can improve maximum aerobic working capacity, aerobic recovery ability and oxygen utilization efficiency by improving the oxygen uptake and utilization ability of badminton players’ skeletal muscles, thus boosting the their rapid repeated sprinting ability.