Running training and adaptive strategies of locomotor-respiratory coordination

It has been suggested that stronger coupling between locomotory and breathing rhythms may occur as a result of training in the particular movement pattern and also may reduce the perceived workload or metabolic cost of the movement. Research findings on human locomotor–respiratory coordination are equivocal, due in part to the fact that assessment techniques range in sensitivity to important aspects of coordination (e.g. temporal ordering of patterns, half-integer couplings and changes in frequency and phase coupling). An additional aspect that has not received much attention is the adaptability of this coordination to changes in task constraints. The current study investigated the effect of running training on the locomotor-respiratory coordination and the adaptive strategies observed across a wide range of walking and running speeds. Locomotor-respiratory coordination was evaluated by the strength and variability of both frequency and phase coupling patterns that subjects displayed within and across the speed conditions. Male subjects (five runners, five non-runners) locomoted at seven different treadmill speeds. Group results indicated no differences between runners and non-runners with respect to breathing parameters, stride parameters, as well as the strength and variability of the coupling at each speed. Individual results, however, showed that grouping subjects masks large individual differences and strategies across speeds. Coupling strategies indicated that runners show more stable dominant couplings across locomotory speeds than non-runners do. These findings suggest that running training does not change the strength of locomotor–respiratory coupling but rather how these systems adapt to changing speeds.