Critical load during continuous and discontinuous training in swimming Wistar rats

The study aimed to verify the pattern of critical load (CL) and anaerobic swim capacity (ASC) during a twelve-week continuous program, after 3 and 9 days of detraining, and in a short-term retraining in swimming rats. Animals were distributed into four groups: control (CG), trained (TG), detrained 3 days (D3G) and detrained 9 days (D9G). They were submitted to a CL test in a swimming exercise. TG group trained continuously during 12 weeks. D3G and D9G groups trained for five weeks, stopped for three and nine days, respectively, and came back to complete the training period. ANOVA two-way for repeated measures was used to compare data. All groups showed decline on CL during the twelve weeks of training, but TG showed higher CL values at the end of the twelve weeks (T: 7.03 ± 1.62% of body mass, p<0.05). ASC values did not have a regular pattern of change; there were no statistical difference in the end of the twelve weeks. This study showed that continuous training was able to keep CL values higher than the other groups, but detraining and a short-term retraining was not benefic for CL and ASC.