Peak Oxygen Uptake Responses to Free and Simulated Swimming Using Different Body Segments.

Simulated swimming has been a useful tool in training and in assessment of physiological responses of swimmers. However, the extent to which oxygen uptake responses to simulated swimming compare to respective responses during free swimming is not yet known. The purpose of this study was to compare oxygen uptake responses in free and simulated swimming using different body segments. Five men (mean ± SD; mass: 67.2 ±5.3 kg, stature: 1.74 ± 0.06 m, age: 19.1 ± 3.4 years) and four women (mass: 62.2 ± 3.1 kg, stature: 1.63 ± 0.04 m, age: 17.3 ± 4.1 years) club swimmers performed six incremental exercise tests to exhaustion. These tests comprised whole-stroke, arms-only and legs-only free and simulated swimming. Oxygen uptake (VO₂) was determined throughout the tests and at exhaustion ( VO_2peak) using a portable telemetric system. VO_2peak during whole-stroke free swimming was 10.4 ± 2.0% higher than during simulated swimming (P<0.05), whereas VO_2peak during arms-only and legs-only free swimming did not differ from that of simulated swimming. These results suggest that oxygen uptake responses to arms-only and legs-only simulated swimming compare favourably with respective responses to free swimming, yet, there are still limitations to simulation of whole-stroke freestyle swimming in the laboratory