PLASMA-CATECHOLAMINES AND RENIN-ACTIVITY IN WRESTLERS FOLLOWING VIGOROUS SWIMMING

Cardiovascular and neuroendocrine responses to exercise in a physicall y fit and an untrained group of young healthy subjects were compared t o study the significance of physical fitness for performance in a disc ipline for which the athletes were not trained. Ten wrestlers of natio nal rank prepared for an international competition (age 18 years) and 9 untrained healthy males (age 21 years). Exercise consisted of 27-min swimming, freestyle, in water of 29 degrees C, with last 3 min increa sed to maximal effort. The blood pressure, heart rate and sublingual t emperature were measured and blood samples were withdrawn before exerc ise, immediately after and after a 30 min period of rest. Catecholamin es were analyzed by radioenzymatic method and plasma renin activity (P RA) using commercial kits. Systolic blood pressure and heart rate afte r swimming were increased comparably in the two groups, diastolic pres sure was unchanged in the controls and decreased in the wrestlers. Pla sma cortisol remained unchanged. Plasma glucose tended to increase in the controls and so decrease in wrestlers, with a significant differen ce between them after swimming (p<0.05). However, plasma adrenaline wa s concomitantly increased in both groups (p<0.01). Noradrenaline and P RA were increased after swimming in both the control and trained group . The increments of noradrenaline and PRA in wrestlers were significan tly reduced compared to the control group (p<0.01, p<0.05, respectivel y). Higher physical fitness in athletes significantly reduced plasma n oradrenaline and angiotensin responses to maximal exercise demanding s pecial skill in work performance which had not been included in their training program. Training of wrestlers did not cause an exaggerated p lasma adrenaline response to exercise.