INFLUENCE OF DEEP WATER RUN TRAINING SUPPLEMENT ON THE MAINTENANCE OF AEROBIC PERFORMANCE AND KINEMATICS OF MIDDLE-DISTANCE RUNNERS

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine whether trained competitive runners could maintain on-land running performance and kinematics, using 8 wk of deep water run supplement training (30%) instead of just on-land training. Eight trained male runners (V02MAX: 53,3 ± 4.1 ml. Kg,1. min,1) were assigned to one of the two groups, on-land run just (R) or water run supplement (WR). Following 8 wk of workouts, no significant intragroup or intergroup differences were observed for treadmill V02MAX, running economy, horizontal velocity, stride length, stride rate, time of support, time of flight and segmental body positions. It was concluded that deep water running may serve as an effective training supplement to land-based running for the maintenance of aerobic performance and running kinematics for up 8 wk in trained middle-distance runners.