The Respiratory Activity and Capacity of a Woman Athlete Before and During the Training Period

The changes which an athlete goes through during the period of training are indeed important in determining the extent of conditioning. While many of these changes of adjustment are general over the body, perhaps the respiratory and the circulatory systems take the lead of the systemic involvement. The reaction of the respiratory center to changes in O2 and CO2 levels of blood undoubtedly must pass through some modification as an athlete undergoes training. There is hardly any question that respiratory capacity of the lungs is increased. To what extent the respiratory center changes in its response to CO2 and O2 changes is not thoroughly pointed out in the literature. As a matter of fact there is a scarcity of literature on the subject. Taylor (3) in 1939 made this study—A Comparison of Vital Capacity and Respiration of Athletes and Non-Athletes. Mercher (2) in 1938 conducted an experiment to determine the effect of lung capacity upon athletic ability. Others have made similar studies each year. Because of the Importance of physiological adjustments during training and the lack of tangible work on the respiratory center involvement, this problem was thought to be of interest to the writer