Passive Heating Increases Bench-Pull Power Output in Highly Trained Swimmers

Abstract

Purpose: Determine the effects of skin temperature change on bench-pull power following a passive warm-up intervention with highly trained swimmers using multiple heated clothing garments. Methods: Using a crossover design, 8 high-performance swimmers (mean [SD]; age, 22.4 [4.4] y; body mass, 74.9 [8.1] kg; height, 1.79 [0.09] m; world record ratio, 107.3% [5.1%]) completed a pool-based warm-up followed by a 35-minute transition phase before completing 3 repetitions at 50% of 1-repetition maximum of the bench-pull exercise. During transition, swimmers wore either a warm (control) or a heated (heat) clothing condition. Results: Following heating, mean skin temperature was 0.7 °C higher in heat (P = .011), though no change was seen in tympanic temperature. Bench-pull mean and peak power improved by 4.5% and 4.7% following heating, respectively. A large repeated-measures correlation was observed between skin temperature and mean (r [90% CI] = .94 [.65 to .99], P < .01) and peak (r [90% CI] = .89 [.45 to .98], P < .01) power output. Thermal sensation and comfort at all regions were higher with heating (P ≤ .02). Conclusion: Combined upper- and lower-limb passive heating can increase whole-body skin temperature and improve short-duration upper-limb power output during the bench-pull exercise. Improvements in power output were directly related to the skin temperature increase facilitated by the heated clothing.