Effects of Additional Rifle-Carriage Training on Physiological Markers and Roller-Skiing Performance in Well-Trained Biathletes

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose was to investigate whether an increased amount of training while carrying the rifle affects skiing in well-trained biathletes at submaximal and maximal workloads during a pre-season period lasting a minimum of 12 weeks.

Methods

Seventeen well-trained biathletes (9 females, 8 males) were assigned to an intervention (IG, n = 10) or control (CG, n = 7) group. Before (T1) and after (T2) the training intervention all participants performed, using treadmill roller-skiing, a submaximal test without the rifle on one day and two submaximal workloads and a maximal time trial (TT) with the rifle on a subsequent day. Between T1 and T2 all participants performed a minimum of 12 weeks of normal training, the only difference between groups being that IG performed more of their training sessions carrying the rifle.

Results

IG performed more training compared to CG (15.4 ± 1.1 vs. 11.2 ± 2.6 h/week, P < 0.05), including a higher amount of training with the rifle (3.1 ± 0.6 vs. 1.1 ± 0.3 h/week, P < 0.001). Speed at 4 mmol/L of blood lactate increased significantly for CG from T1 to T2 (P = 0.028), while only tended to increase for IG (P = 0.058). Performance during the TT, VO_2max and the aerobic metabolic rate increased significantly from T1 to T2, although the differences disappeared when including the speed at baseline as a covariate.

Conclusion

According to the present results, increasing training while carrying the rifle by 2 h/week does not appear to improve skiing performance in well-trained biathletes. In addition, physiological markers at submaximal and maximal intensities while carrying the rifle were not affected after the training intervention.

Funding

Municipality of ?stersund; Mid Sweden University