The physiological effects of training in artistic-athletes

Dancers are often overlooked as athletes because of the artistic nature of their event. However, they must perform physiologically demanding choreography with precise technique, while maintaining a pleasing aesthetic. Because of the demands of dance performance, the artistic-athlete presents a unique challenge to practitioners striving to optimize their health and performance. Managing athlete health and performance requires testing and monitoring to evaluate the demands of training, how the athlete is responding to these demands, and determine areas that can be improved upon. Heart rate monitoring (HRM) is a viable means to monitor training as training load (TL) and exercise energy expenditure (EEE) is assessed, and they are reflective of the internal physiological training stress endured by the athlete. The effects of training can be observed through changes in various performance markers and blood biomarkers, and the success of training can be determined whether the desired outcome was achieved or not. However, HRM is limited to the time the athlete is wearing a monitor. Thus, inclusion of blood biomarkers provides a thorough assessment of one’s physiological response to on- and off-stage stressors. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation is to observe the physiological stress (i.e. TL and blood biomarkers) of training in the artistic-athlete, and examine interventions to optimize their health and performance (i.e. resistance training). We hypothesize the physiological demand of training will be low (relative to other sports), however blood biomarkers will change with cumulative TL, reflective of overall stress, related to inadequate energy intake and suboptimal recovery.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical reference