The effects of vitamin D₃ supplementation on the aerobic and anaerobic exercise performance of recreational combat sport athletes

Abstract

Vitamin D is a secosteroid prohormone classically associated with calcium metabolism and bone health. However, emerging research suggests that vitamin D may also influence exercise performance. Most research on vitamin D and exercise performance focuses on markers of muscle strength, despite correlations existing between vitamin D status and VO_2max. In study 1, the response to vitamin D₃ supplementation at various doses on markers of aerobic and anaerobic exercise performance in recreational combat sport athletes was evaluated. Vitamin D₃ supplementation increased lower body VO_2peak by between 10-12% and upper body VO_2peak by between 12-18% with improvements in peak power by 3-7% and 10-26% in the lower and upper body respectively with no additional benefit to consuming more than 50000IU.week^-1. In the following study it was seen that vitamin D3 supplementation of 50000IU.week^-1 in conjunction with concurrent lower and upper body sprint interval training (SIT) increased lower body VO2 peak by 8% in the vitamin D supplemented group with no change (-0.7%) in the placebo group. This was coupled with increases in lower body Wingate peak power by 22-25% and by 14-16% in vitamin D and placebo groups respectively. The final study investigated two weeks of vitamin D₃ supplementation combined with SIT consisting of hill sprints and battle rope exercise. Vitamin D₃ supplementation improved repeated sprint ability in the lower and upper body compared to placebo. All studies demonstrated that vitamin D3 supplementation can positively effect haematocrit and haemoglobin concentrations, implying a role of vitamin D in red blood cell health. Taken together, this implies that recreational combat athletes should supplement with vitamin D₃ due to the high likelihood of this population group having suboptimal vitamin D status to induce aerobic and anaerobic exercise performance increases.

Date of Award	Jun 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Abertay University
Supervisor	John Babraj (Supervisor) & Marie Clare Grant (Supervisor)