A lactate-guided conditioning programme to improve endurance performance.

The research article is about a study on improving the endurance of horses through a lactate-guided conditioning program, which adjusted the conditioning regime every two weeks based on changes in v4. The experiment showed a significant improvement in horse endurance performance over six weeks.

Introduction

• The research was conducted based on the wide use of blood lactate measurements in evaluating athletic performance in horses.
• The researchers particularly studied v4, the velocity at which a blood lactate concentration of 4 mmol/l is reached.
• The idea was derived from an earlier study which showed that low-intensity, longer duration exercise was more effective at improving endurance than short, high-intensity exercises.
• The hypothesis of this study was that to improve v4 in the same timeframe, the conditioning regimes need to be adjusted more frequently than in the previous study.

Methodology

• The researchers initiated the study with six horses being subjected to a treadmill-based standard exercise test (SET).
• The [LA]-speed relationship was obtained through a regression analysis, and was used to calculate v2.
• The horses were then conditioned for 45 minutes at their calculated v2 value, three times per week (6% incline).
• Every two weeks, the horses underwent an SET to evaluate the v2 conditioning protocol. The experiment ended with SET 4.

Results and Conclusion

• The findings revealed that the mean v4 increased by 17% from SET 1 to SET 4 (P = 0.003; 5.8 +/- 03 to 6.8 +/- 0.4 m/s).
• This constitutes a significant improvement in horse endurance performance over a six-week period when the conditioning protocol was adjusted every two weeks based on the v4.
• Thus, the study concludes that a lactate-guided conditioning programme can significantly enhance endurance performance in horses within a six-week timeframe when the conditioning protocol is regularly adjusted.