Effects of Carbon Dioxide Inhalation Prior to Maximal Exercise on Blood Lactate and Physical Performance

Abstract

In order to examine the effect of acute respiratory acidosis induced by CO₂ inhalation prior to maximal exercise on blood lactate and physical performance, double determinations were carried out for each subject on separate days ; one day, after CO₂ inhalation and other day, after inhalation of room air. It was observed that in the untrained subjects the CO₂ inhalation prior to maximal treadmill exercise does not affect endurance time and maximum aerobic power, whereas blood lactate during recovery was lower in CO₂ breathing than that in room air. In addition, no significant difference of 200m sprint time in the athletes was noticed between CO₂ and room air while blood lactate after 200m sprint running was significantly lower in the CO₂ than that in room air. From these results, it was suggested that the effect of CO₂ inhalation prior to maximal exercise as applied here appeared to be mediate through metabolic rather than oxygen transport mechanism, but not related to physical performance.