The importance of monitoring saturated oxygen values in hemoglobin in the sports diagnostics

Cardiorespiratory performance is one of the most important determinants of success in sports activities. In order to better prepare for sports challenges, the athletes must be exposed to appropriate training which should be based on individualized physiological parameters during activity. Even though training intensity can be determined in many different ways, the endurance training intensity is often quantified by the lactate thresholds obtained from the blood sampling or the ventilator thresholds obtained from the gas exchange. These data represent delayed indirect indicators of an increased anaerobic ATP resynthesis. The muscle oximetry, based on near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), represents non-invasive method that enables the information about the changes in oxygenation in hemoglobin, and potentially represents a very suitable technique to detect a critical exercise threshold directly in the exercising muscle.