Effectiveness of normobaric hypoxia course use in combination with cervical muscle exercise as a means to improve statokinetic stability in alpine skiers

Abstract

Russian and international research on optimization of functional state and physical performance of athletes is one of the focus areas in current sports studies. The aim of this research was to study the effectiveness of normobaric hypoxia course use in combination with cervical muscle exercise as a means to improve statokinetic stability in alpine skiers. The research involved 35 alpine skiing athletes aged 18–20 (21 subjects – experimental group, 14 subjects – control group) from the representative team of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University. Continuous cumulation of Coriolis acceleration (CCCA) method was used as a stimulus for the vestibular analyser. To improve statokinetic stability of the experimental group subjects, a two-week normobaric hypoxia training course in combination with cervical muscle exercises was used. The control group subjects were given “fake” normobaric hypoxia courses and performed no dedicated cervical muscle exercise. The results of the study showed that the experimental group subjects who received normobaric hypoxia in combination with cervical muscle exercise demonstrated a reliably improved CCCA tolerance time (versus initial measurements). Besides, there was a decrease in the manifestation degree of vestibulosensory, vestibulovegetative, and vestibulosomatic reactions, which generally indicates improvement of CCCA tolerance in this group of subjects. Positive dynamics of test parameters in the experimental group subjects has also been confirmed by the data of the static stabilometric test in the integrated functional computer stabilography. For instance, the open eyes test showed a reliably significant reduction in the rate of increase of the statokinesiogram length and area, oscillation amplitude of the projection of the common centre of gravity in the frontal and sagittal planes, and coefficient of asymmetry in the frontal and sagittal directions. The obtained results can justify recommendation of normobaric hypoxia course use in combination with cervical muscle exercise as a means to improve statokinetic stability in alpine skiers.