The relationship between the changes in physical fitness and in total blood volume in subjects having regular and measured training

PubMed ID: 4427447The study was carried out on 9 male and 6 female medical students leading a regular life as an experimental group and the results have been compared statistically with those of the control group of 8 males and 7 females having similar physical characteristics and regular life. The following parameters have been measured; plasma volume, hemoglobin, hematocrit, maximal oxygen intake, basal heart rate, maximum voluntary ventilation, vital capacity, heart volume, maximal respiratory minute volume, and maximal working capacity. The measurements have been done before and after 2 mth of ergometric training period. Training consisted of 0.5 hr ergometric work daily. The results were: physical fitness as measured by maximal oxygen intake was improved significantly after training in both sexes; and total blood volume was increased significantly after training in both sexes. It is found that the increase in total blood volume was most likely the result of an increase in plasma volume. There was no significant correlation between physical fitness and total blood volume. It seems that these two changes occur independently during training