The purpose of this study is to define the effects of regular swimming exercise on the physical composition, physical strength, and blood lipids of middle-aged women. The subjects of this study are a total of 24 middle-aged women in the swimming group and the control group, with 12 women for each group. The swimming group performed swimming exercise for 60 min every time for 3 times a week, for...

Antrodia camphorata (AC) is an endemic mushroom that grows in Taiwan. We investigated the fatigue-alleviating effects of AC on endurance capacity in swim-exercised and weight-loading mice. Male Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) strain mice from 3 groups (n = 10 per group in each test) were orally administered AC fruiting body extract for 7 days at 0, 50, and 200 mg/kg/day, designated vehicle, ...

The prevalence of airway dysfunction in elite swimmers is among the highest in elite athletes. The traditional view that swimmers naturally gravitate toward swimming because of preexisting respiratory disorders has been challenged. There is now sufficient evidence that the higher prevalence of bronchial tone disorders in elite swimmers is not the result of a natural selection bias. Rather, the ...

The beta 2-agonist clenbuterol has potent anabolic properties in normal and denervated muscle and, as such, may be of use in muscle wasting diseases such as muscular dystrophy. However, potential side effects such as the transformation of the fiber type pool toward increased proportions of fast-twitch fibers must be balanced with the beneficial anabolic properties. In the present report, we cle...

ing factors. First, myoglobin and an energy metabolic system coenzyme leak out into the blood from cells and tissues damaged by exercise, and destruction of red blood cells occurs. Second, exercise promotes consumption of energy sources such as glycogen by mobilizing internal energy metabolism to the maximum and using and depleting the energy source. Third, through these processes, exercise cau...

Effects of feeding of either creatine or its analog beta-guanidinopropionic acid (beta-GPA) on endurance work capacity and oxygen consumption were studied in rats. Resting high-energy phosphate contents in hindlimb muscles were lower in the beta-GPA group and higher in the creatine group than in controls. The glycogen contents in resting hindlimb muscles of rats fed beta-GPA were significantly ...

Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) enzyme activities in muscle was significantly related with burst swimming speed and endurance swimming capacity in a variety of fish. Quantitative trait loci (QTLs) associated with LDH were analyzed based on F1 family crossed by Hebao and Heilongjiang carp. A total of seven QTLs (qLDH1, qLDH6, qLDH7, qLDH21 qLDH22, qLDH45a and qLDH45b) were detected on six linkage gr...

At onset of muscle contraction, myoglobin (Mb) immediately releases its bound O2 to the mitochondria. Accordingly, intracellular O2 tension (PmbO2) markedly declines in order to increase muscle O2 uptake (mVO2). However, whether the change in PmbO2 during muscle contraction modulates mVO2 and whether the O2 release rate from Mb increases in endurance-trained muscles remain unclear. The purpose ...

Gender differences in fatigue manifest as females being more prone to feel exhaustion and having lower muscle endurance. However, the mechanisms of these effects remain unclear. We investigated whether orosomucoid, an endogenous anti-fatigue protein that enhances muscle endurance, is involved in this regulation. Female rats exhibited lower muscle endurance, and this gender difference disappeare...

We studied the influence of physical activity stress on the circadian rhythms of melatonin and corticosterone in 3-month old male Wistar rats. Every two hours for 24 h around the clock, an animal from the stressed group was first made to swim for two hours, and was then subjected to a further ten minutes of forced swimming using a modification of the apparatus employed in the Porsolt test. The ...