Training status (endurance or sprint) and catecholamine response to the Wingate-test in women

The aim of this study was to verify if, as for men, training status induces different catecholamine responses to exercise. To do this, we investigated the effect of training status (sprint or endurance) on plasma catecholamine response to a supramaximal exercise in women. Nineteen subjects took part in our study: six untrained subjects (UT), seven endurance trained subjects (ET) and six sprint trained ones (ST). The trained subjects (ET and ST) were all competing at a high national level, The maximal power (W-max) and the mean power (W) were determined from the Wingate-test. Blood lactate, adrenaline (A) and noradrenaline (NA) were analysed at rest (La-0, A(0) and NA(0)), immediately at the end of the exercise (A(max) and NA(max)) and after 5 min recovery (La-max [3 min in arterialized blood], A(5) and NA(5)). The disappearance of A and NA was judged by the ratio (A(max)-A(5))/A(max) and (NA(max)-NA(5))/NA(5). The ratio A(max)/NA(max) was considered as an index of the adrenal medulla responsiveness to the sympathetic nervous activity. As expected, during the Wingate-test ST exhibited significantly higher performances compared to UT and ET. But in contrast to the men's data no difference was observed between the three groups both for La-max (13.1 +/- 0.8 mmol x L-1; 14.8 +/- 1.0 mmol x L-1 and 11.2 +/- 0.5 mmol x L-1 respectively for ET, ST and UT), NA(max) (22.1 +/- 1.2 nmol x L-1; 13.1 +/- 2.4 nmol x L-1 and 20.2 +/- 7 nmol x L-1 respectively for ET, ST and UT) and A(max) (4.1 +/- 0.8 nmol x L-1; 2.6 +/- 0.6 nmol x L-1; 13.1 +/- 0.6 nmol x L-1 respectively for ET, ST and UT). Consequently the ratio A(max)/NA(max) was similar in UT, ET and ST (respectively 0.2 +/- 0.03; 0.2 +/- 0.04; 0.17 +/- 0.04), These results indicated, in contrast to the men's data, that the catecholamine response to the Wingate-test did not differ between female subjects of different status of training. In conclusion this study did not find any significant effect of training status on the catecholamine response to supramaximal exercise and so argues in favour of sex differences in response to training.