ORIGINAL ARTICLE   

Gazzetta Medica Italiana Archivio per le Scienze Mediche 2018 July-August;177(7-8):355-9

DOI: 10.23736/S0393-3660.17.03562-8

Copyright © 2017 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Respiratory quotient decreases during sport blowgun trials

Sotaro HAYASHI ¹ ✉, Hiroyuki IMAI ², Sho ONODERA ³

Department of Urban Management, Fukuyama University, Fukuyama, Japan

BACKGROUND: The aim of present study was to determine the respiratory quotient and energy expenditure during sport blowgun trials.
METHODS: Seven healthy males who were skilled in sport blowgun participated in this study. The experiments were conducted in a human calorimeter chamber with an ambient temperature of 23 °C and relative humidity maintained at 49.7%. The chamber size was 3000 (width) × 4000 (depth) × 2650 (height) mm. After resting for 45 minutes (baseline), subjects performed sports blowgun trials for 30 min according to the Japanese sports blowgun association rules. After performing the trials, the subjects rested for 30 minutes (recovery period). The respiratory quotient and energy expenditure were then calculated using the human calorimeter.
RESULTS: The mean respiratory quotient decreased significantly during the sport blowgun trials (0.81±0.0) compared with baseline values (0.86±0.0) and remained low during the recovery period. These results suggest that sport blowgun is a low-intensity activity and enhances the respiratory quotient decrease. The mean energy expenditure was 120.8±8.0 kcal/h during sport blowgun, 94.8±8.0 kcal/h during the baseline and 73.8±3.9 kcal/min/h during the recovery period.
CONCLUSIONS: Our study results indicated that sports blowgun trials decreased the respiratory quotient and slightly increased the energy expenditure to 1.7 METs. In addition, an increase in the workload induced by voluntary respiration results in increased energy expenditure.

KEY WORDS: Respiratory tract diseases - Energy metabolism - Sports