The effect of athletics and football training characteristics on some respiratory parameters in female athletes

Abstract


Introduction
Regular physical activity and exercise provide many adaptations in the human organism.One of these adaptations is seen in the respiratory system.The functionality of the respiratory system is determined by testing the lung volume and capacity (Atan et al., 2012).In determining lung volume and capacity, the spirometry test is a physiological test that shows the volume and flow of air that an individual breathes and exhales at a certain time, and is considered the gold standard.The spirometry test is frequently used for the prevention, diagnosis, and evaluation of various respiratory disorders (Durmic et al., 2015).Lung volume and capacities are affected by genetic factors, respiratory system diseases experienced in early childhood and regular sports activities started at an early age.In addition, although lung functions are determined by unchanging factors such as race and genetics, it has been reported that physically active individuals have higher respiratory function values compared to passive ones, regardless of gender, age, height, and body weight (Fox et al., 1999;Atan et al., 2012).In addition, the duration, type, and intensity of physical activity or exercise affect lung function.As a result of regular training, a significant change occurs in respiratory volume and frequency (Losnegard & Hallén, 2014).
It has been reported in many studies that the respiratory parameters of athletes are better compared to sedentary ones (Doherty & Dimitriou, 1997;Prakash, 2007;Degens et al., 2013;Mazic et al., 2015;Durmic et al., 2015).In addition, the physical and physiological characteristics of the athletes competing in different branches may be similar or different according to the sport types.Increasing respiratory capacity with training is mostly seen in sports that require long-term endurance performance (Patlar et al., 2000).There are many sports branches with different training characteristics.It is very important to know how these training characteristics affect the respiratory parameters of the athletes.Although the cardiovascular system directly affects the endurance performance of athletes, improved lung volume and capacities lead to more efficient oxygen uptake.Considering the lack of studies on spirometric measurements specific to athletes, this may lead to misclassification or misdiagnosis of some respiratory dysfunctions (Durmic et al., 2015).
Long-distance runners generally participate in low-to-moderate-intensity long-term running training.Football is known for its intense activities such as sprinting, jumping, double combat, dribbling, and limited area games are intense, and these activities are frequently applied in the training of football players.However, there are few studies examining the respiratory parameters of athletes in branches where high-intensity activities such as football are dominant.In addition, the number of studies examining the respiratory functions of female athletes in the literature is quite limited.It is thought that this research will contribute to the literature by determining how much doing sports improve respiratory functions in female compared to sedentary ones and how these functions change according to long-distance running and football branch.In light of this information, the aim of our study is to examine the effects of exercise on respiratory functions, as well as the respiratory functions of female long-distance runners and female football players with different training characteristics.

Participants
Fifteen long-distance runner females, 15 female football players, and 15 sedentary females (Table 1), who did not have any chronic disease, did not smoke before, and did not experience any health problems in the last 3 weeks, voluntarily participated in the study.Long-distance runners and football players consist of individuals with at least three years of training history, who train at least five days a week and more than 1 hour a day.All participants were informed of the possible risks of participating in the study and signed a written informed consent form.The participant groups were warned that they should avoid physical activity, caffeine, and alcohol consumption that would affect the measurement results 24 hours before the test days.Measurements were performed between 10.00-12.00 in the morning.

Anthropometric Measurements
The height measurements of the participants were measured with a 1 mm stadiometer (Seca California, USA), and their body weights were measured with a digital scale.BMI was calculated by dividing weight in kilograms by the square of height in meters (kg/m 2 ).

Results
As a result of the one-way ANOVA test performed to compare the respiratory parameters of the participants in Table 2, there was a statistically significant difference in all parameters (p<0.05).
According to the results of the Tukey test, which was conducted to determine which groups the difference originated from, it was found that the FVC, FEV1, FEV1/FVC, PEF, FEF25-75%, VC and MVV values of the long-distance runners were higher than the sedentary individuals.In addition, it was determined that the FEV1, PEF, and FEF25-75%, values of the longdistance runners were higher than the football players.Higher values were observed in football players in terms of PEF and MVV parameters compared to sedentary (Table 2 and Figure 1).

Discussion
In our study, besides the effect of exercise on respiratory functions, the effects of long-distance training and football training characteristics on some respiratory parameters were investigated.According to our study results, it was determined that the respiratory function values of FVC, FEV1, FEV1/FVC, PEF, FEF25-75%, VC, and MVV of female long-distance runners were higher than sedentary ones.In addition, it was observed that the FEV1, PEF, and FEF25-75% values of female long-distance runners were higher than football players.On the other hand, PEF and MVV pulmonary function values of female football players were higher than those of sedentary.
When we look at the studies investigating the effect of exercise on the respiratory system, it has been stated that exercise has a positive effect on respiratory function in general (Sable et al., 2012;Ahmadi et al., 2013;Johnson et al., 1996;Gökdemir et al., 2007).In a study examining the effects of physical activity on respiratory functions, it was reported that physical activity improves respiratory parameters such as FVC, FEV1, PEF, FEF25-75%, VC, and MVV (Bilici & Türker, 2019).In another study, it was determined that low-intensity and long-term exercises applied to adults cause an increase in respiratory parameters such as FEV1, and FEF50% (Koubaa et al., 2015).In a study conducted to determine the respiratory function capacity of swimmers and sedentary, it was stated that the lung functions of swimmers were better than sedentary swimmers (Vaithiyanadane et al., 2012).In another study examining the effect of swimming sports on lung functions, it was concluded that the VC, FVC, FEV1, MVV, and PEF respiratory function values of swimmers were higher than those who did not do swimming sports (Shashi et al., 2013).In a study investigating the effect of exercise on the lungs, it was stated that the FVC, FEV1, and PEF values of the athletes were higher compared to sedentary individuals (Mehrotra et al., 1998).In a study conducted on university female students, it was determined that the FVC, VC, FEV1, PEF, and FEF25-75% respiratory function values of female students who regularly engage in physical activity are higher than those who do not (Bilici & Genç, 2020).The results of our study show similarities with these studies stating that regular exercise improves respiratory functions.Especially high respiratory function values in athletes; It may be that regular forced inspiration and expiration during exercise causes the respiratory muscles to strengthen, which will help the lungs fill and empty with maximum air (Vedala et al., 2013).In addition, there are few studies suggesting that exercise does not have a special effect on respiratory functions (Martin & May, 1987;Lakhera et al., 1994;Çakır Atabek, 2017).
In our study, it was determined that the FEV1, PEF, and FEF25-75% respiratory function values of female long-distance runners were higher than female football players.This may be due to the fact that longdistance runner athletes do more aerobic-based training than football players, so the respiratory muscles are exercised more.Each sports branch has a training frequency, scope, and intensity that varies according to the demands and competition time.In addition, the adaptations of the athletes to the branch differ due to the phenomenon known as "sportspecific morphological fitness" (Berglund et al., 2011).In order to provide sufficient energy production in long-distance running, oxygen must reach the tissues aerobically.For this reason, it is expected that the fitness of the heart, circulatory and respiratory systems of long-distance athletes will be at very good levels.Due to this situation, we can say that long-distance runner athletes have better values in some respiratory parameters compared to football players in our study.Although there is no research in the literature comparing only long-distance athletes and football players, there are studies comparing different branches.In a study, branch-specific training was applied to male amateur athletes in basketball, football, volleyball, athletics, and taekwondo branches for 12 weeks and it was reported that the FVC and FEV1 values of the athletics athletes were better than the football players (Özaltaş et al., 2015).On the other hand, in another study by Holmen et al. (2002) in their study on athletes aged 13-19, they found that athletes engaged in team sports such as football, volleyball, basketball, and handball had higher FEV1 values when compared to swimmers and long-distance runners.Ghosh et al. (1985), however, no significant difference was found between athletics athletes and football players in terms of VC, MVV, and FEV1 values.These findings show similarities and differences with the results of our study.The reason for this may be the individual differences of the participants, the level of sports, ethnic origins, and the differences in the training they do.In a study on football players and sedentary, it was observed that football players showed better respiratory functions compared to sedentary (Atan et al., 2012).In addition, in another study examining respiratory functions in different sports branches, it was stated that respiratory parameters changed according to sports branches (Durmic et al., 2015).
In addition to regular physical activity starting at an early age, age, ethnicity, genetics, and physical characteristics are factors that affect respiratory functions (Fox et al., 1999;Quanjer et al., 2012).Although the genetic characteristics of our participants are not known, it is seen that they are very close to each other in terms of age, ethnicity, and physical characteristics.For this reason, we can say that the difference in respiratory functions between groups is due to the characteristics of regular training.
Some limitations should be considered while evaluating the results of our study.Our participants are not elite athletes.Branch-specific differences can be observed more clearly in elite-level athletes.In addition, since the training of the athletes was not done under our control, it was assumed that the training was applied specifically to the branch.Another limitation of our study is that spirometry measurements were taken in one go.Making these measurements on different days can provide clearer results for respiratory values.

Conclusion
As a result, in females; It can be said that airflow increases due to the strengthening of respiratory muscles and the decrease in resistance in the large and small airways in the lungs with the effect of exercise.In addition, factors such as the type of sport, and the type and duration of exercise are thought to have different effects on respiratory functions.In future research, studies examining certain exercise models are needed due to differences in sports branches.Regular exercise can be considered both a preventive and a therapeutic method for some pulmonary diseases in terms of improving respiratory functions.It can be said that especially individuals in childhood can improve their respiratory functions by doing regular exercise together with their physical development.

Table 1
Demographic characteristics of the participants (n=15).

Table 2
One-way ANOVA test results of respiratory parameters between groups.