On November 15th 2024 Laura Lepasalu will defend her thesis „Relationship between body composition and muscle strength, and adaptation to constant intensity cycling exercise under laboratory conditions in male road cyclists“.
Supervisor:
Professor emeritus Mati Pääsuke, University of Tartu
Opponent:
Professor Arvydas Stasiulis, Lithuanian Sports University
Summary:
Cycling is an endurance sport where training and competition loads are related to fatigue. It is important for cyclists to prevent overuse injuries caused by long-term fatiguing loads. Most studies conducted on cyclists focus on adaptations to training and competition loads in relation to changes in the cardiovascular system or metabolism. There is less research on changes in body composition, bone composition, and the neuromuscular system in professional cyclists. This doctoral thesis evaluated two problems related to cyclists. First, the relationships between body composition, bone mineral parameters, and muscle strength indicators of the best long[1][1]term trained male road cyclists in Estonia were examined. Second, it was explained how cyclists adapt to single constant intensity cycling exercise under laboratory conditions. The development of fatigue in the back and lower limb muscles during 30-min cycling exercise and seat pressure asymmetries after cycling exercise were evaluated. As a result, it can be concluded that long-term trained male cyclists have stronger associations between bone mineral parameters and body mass compared to untrained controls, which shows the organism’s long-term adaptation to endurance training, whereas muscle strength was not associated with bone mineral and body composition parameters in cyclists. Male cyclists showed significant fatigue in their back muscles during a 30-min of cycling exercise at constant intensity. This fatigue is related to the slowing of the motoneuron impulse frequency due to inhibition in the spinal cord. However, there were no changes in lower limb muscles under the given load conditions. The electrically evoked twitch force characteristics of the knee extensor muscles recovered faster after cycling exercise at a constant intensity as compared to voluntary force-generation capacity. This indicates the presence of peripheral (muscle) fatigue in the working muscles. One important result of the doctoral thesis was the observed seat pressure asymmetry under the ischial tuberosity after cycling exercise. Assessing the seat pressure distribution before and after long-term loads is one way to prevent the development of overload problems in the back muscle area.