Dr.Med., Associate Professor E.Yu. Dyakova¹
A.A. Mironov^1
1Tomsk State University, Tomsk

Keywords: external respiration, underwater finswimming, adaptation, athletes.

Introduction. The growing competitiveness in the finswimming sport urges the sport community to look for the ways to improve the elite training systems to secure competitive progress [1, 3, 5]. In the educational domain, the long-term training systems give a due priority to the swimming techniques and tactics that have been well studied and are being actively introduced into the training process at various training stages [2] albeit the biomedical aspects of the training systems remain still underdeveloped [3, 4, 6].
Objective of the study was to identify the external respiration system adaptation mechanisms in the athletes engaged in finswimming sport.
Methods and structure of the study. The study was carried out at the premises of the Department of Sport and Wellness Outdoor Tourism, and Sports Physiology and Medicine of Tomsk State University and lasted from 2015 through 2017. Sampled for the study were the 18-23 year old elite underwater finswimmers, surface swimmers (with the 9+ year sport records) and students split up into the following three groups: Experimental Group (EG, n=15) of underwater finswimmers; Reference Group 1 (RG1, n=15) of the surface swimmers and RG2 (n=15) of Tomsk State University students trained in the traditional body conditioning groups. The EG and RG1 were trained 1-2 times per day 5-6 times a week; and the RG2 was trained 2-3 times a week. Spirometric test data were mined by the Valenta Computerized Test System made by Neo Company, Russia.
Results and discussion. The analysis of the results of study of the external respiration function revealed some statistically significant differences between all three groups (Tables 1-3).

Table 1. Spirometric test data in groups of underwater finswimmers and surface swimmers.

Table 2. Spirometric test data in groups of underwater finswimmers and students trained in traditional body conditioning group

There were statistically significant differences between the surface swimmers and students trained in the traditional body conditioning group (Table 3).

Table 3. Spirometric test data in groups of surface swimmers and students trained in traditional body conditioning group

Almost all the indicators obtained in the group of underwater finswimmers exceeded those in the surface swimmers (Table 1) and students trained in the traditional body conditioning group (Table 2). This indicated that the underwater finswimmers were more affected by the mechanisms of adaptation of the external respiration system, which was possibly associated with hypoxia in aquatic environments.
Conclusion. The external respiration test data were found to closely correlate with the orientation of the training process and reflect the ways of the respiratory system adaptation to different types of muscular activity. The analysis of the data obtained revealed that the external respiration functionality rates in the underwater finswimmers were higher than those in the surface swimmers and students trained in the traditional physical conditioning group.

References

1. Vanyushin M.Yu. Adaptation of athlete's cardiorespiratory system to incremental physical load. PhD diss.. Kazan, 2003. 141 p.
2. Volkov V.M. Physiological aspects of modern sport. VKN: sport in modern society. M., 1980. pp 185-235.
3. Prytkova E.G. Features of adaptation of swimmer's body under training and competitive activity. PhD diss.. Volgograd, 2004. 216 p.
4. Prytkova E.G., Davydov V.Yu., Savva V.B. Features of operational control in training process of skilled swimmers. St. Petersburg, 2005. pp. 212 – 215.
5. Shumkov A.D., Shumkova L.G. ABC of finswimming. V I. M.: Azbuka publ., 2000, 2009. 87 p.
6. Krivoshchekov S.G., Balioz N.V., Nekipelova N.V., Kapilevich L.V. Age, gender, and individually-typological features of reaction to sharp hypoxic influence . Human Physiology. V. 40, no. 6. pp. 613 – 622.

Abstract
The growing competitiveness in the finswimming sport urges the sport community look for the ways to improve the elite training systems to secure competitive progress.
In the educational domain, the long-term training systems give a due priority to the swimming techniques and tactics albeit the biomedical aspects of the training systems remain still underdeveloped. The study analyzes the external respiration system adaptation mechanisms in the modern finswimming sport. Sampled for the study were the 18-23 year old elite underwater finswimmers, surface swimmers (with the 9+ year sport records) and students split up into the following three groups: Experimental Group (EG, n=15) of underwater finswimmers; Reference Group 1 (RG1, n=15) of the surface swimmers and RG2 (n=15) of the Tomsk State University students trained in the traditional body conditioning groups. The EG and RG1 were trained 1-2 times per day 5-6 times a week; and the RG2 was trained 2-3 times a week. Spirometric test data were mined by the Valenta Computerized Test System made by Neo Company, Russia. The external respiration test data were found significantly different for the above groups, with the finswimmers adaptation growth rates found significantly better than that in the RG1 and RG2. The progress may be attributed to the hypoxic training effects of the modern finswimming training system.