Cardiovascular Response to Punching Tempo - Setanta College

Figure 4. Oxygen uptake (V˙ O2) trial responses to boxing
tempos.
Figure 5. Rating of perceived exertion trial responses to
boxing tempos. Significant rank order difference between
trials.
The results of this investigation clearly show that
fitness boxing at any of the 6 tempos can elicit a satisfactory
oxygen uptake response for improving cardiovascular
endurance based on the intensity guidelines
set by the ACSM of 50–85% V˙ O2max (1). The percentage
of oxygen uptake values can be seen in Figure
6 and ranged from 67.9 to 72.3% of V˙ O2max for each
of the 6 punching tempos. The current data suggest a
much higher increase in V˙ O2 than was previously
shown by Shaw and Deutsch (10) during a karate kata.
This is to be expected based on the slower, more concise
motions of the kata vs. the constant and repetitious
actions of punching at high tempos. Our data is
consistent with those obtained by Sugiyami et al. (13)
in a study with 12 male collegiate karate athletes repeating
a basic karate strike every second for 3 minutes,
which yielded values of 62.2–74.4% V˙ O2max.
Punching Tempo 107
Figure 6. Percent maximum oxygen uptake (V˙ O2max) and
maximum heart rate (HRmax) responses to boxing tempos.
This investigation also sought to find out if a difference
in oxygen uptake would be observed between
commonly used boxing tempos. Figure 4 illustrates the
relationship between V˙ O2 and punching tempo. No
overall significant difference was observed. Although
VE increased significantly because of punching tempo
(Figure 2), these data indicate that the punching tempo
did not directly alter the actual oxygen uptake of the
subjects.
There was a significant increase in RPE for all trials
(Figure 5). This indicates that the subjects felt they
were performing at a higher work level without the
increase in V˙ O2 that would usually be associated with
this increase. This may be associated to other variables,
such as HR response, respiratory rate, muscle fatigue,
speed of movement, and joint stress.
With this in mind, the prospect of increased injury
rate at higher tempos is brought into context. Because
of the relatively new nature of this form of exercise, no
data are available to support the notion that punching
at a higher tempo leads to more injury. Research is
available, however, on injury rates and suggested causes
in the field of dance aerobics, which may be associated
to this aerobic activity as well. Studies have reported
that 80% of all dance and aerobic injuries are
caused by overuse (4, 14). Vetter et al. (14) classified
overuse injuries into the following 2 categories: (a) accumulated
microtrauma from repetitive movements
that can lead to an inflammatory response, and (b) tissue
with previous microtrauma that, if not given time
to heal, can lead to muscle breakdown at a higher level.
It seems plausible that repeated exposure to the
faster punching tempos may give rise to overuse injuries.
The HR response to different punching rates also
was found to be capable of meeting and exceeding the
ACSM guidelines of 60–90% maximal HR (1). These
results, as shown in Figure 6, range from 85.6 to 93.1%
of HRmax. The current data are similar to those reported
by Pieter et al. (9), Sugiyama et al. (13), and