Effects of underwater breath-holding training on athletes' lung capacity, heart rate, blood pressure, and lung CT imaging

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to explore the effects of underwater breathing-holding training on the cardiovascular function and swimming performance of athletes. METHODS: Sixty swimming athletes from sports colleges are separated into an experimental group and a control group, with 30 athletes in each one. Two groups undergo 8 weeks of swimming training with a total of 32 lessons. The control group athletes receive routine swimming training. The experimental group adds breath-holding training during swimming training. Before and after training, cardiopulmonary function tests are conducted on the two groups, including heart rate, lung capacity, blood pressure, and breath-holding time. Meanwhile, the maximum suction pressure, suction flow rate, and maximum ventilation volume of the athletes are tested before and after the experiment. In addition, the study also adds a 50m freestyle swimming test to explore the swimming performance of two groups before and after training. RESULTS: After 8 weeks, the overall improvement effect of the experimental group was more significant. In the cardiopulmonary function test, the lung capacity of the experimental group athletes increased from 3.24±1.69L to 4.81±1.93L, with statistical significance (P0.05). Meanwhile, the heart rate of the experimental group athletes decreased from 58.61±9.32 beats/minute to 56.39±8.28 beats/minute, with a P value of only 0.1668, lower than that of the control group's 0.4412. In addition, the breath-holding time of the experimental group increased from 54.36±2.05 s before the experiment to 60.15±3.28 s (P