Two water environment adaptation models enhance motor behavior and improve the success of the lactate minimum test in swimming rats

Abstract

-Aims: This study was designed to investigate the effects of 14 water environment adaptation days on motor behavior and physiological condition of swimming rats. Methods: Sixty male Wistar rats were divided into four groupsbaseline (Bl) and control (Co) groups-which did not perform the water environment adaptation; and sub (SubAnT) and (SupraAnT) anaerobic threshold groups, which performed 14 water environment adaptation days with sub or supra anaerobic threshold progressive loads (from the tenth day), respectively. The climbing-swimming prevalence (i.e. motor behavior) was analyzed during the water environment adaptation days. Lactate minimum test (LMT) parameters and muscular/hepatic glycogen content in addition to serum creatine kinase were also measured. Results: Animals from SubAnT and SupraAnT groups presented a lower climbing-swimming pattern throughout the extent of the experiment (p=0.000), especially after the 5th session. These results were achieved without an improvement in the LMT results or glycogen/creatine kinase. In addition, improvements of 26.6% and 25% for the LMT success rate (i.e. LMT reliability) were obtained only for SubAnT and SupraAnT animals. Conclusion: Overall, we demonstrated that a water environment adaptation period is necessary for lowering the climbing-swimming pattern without physiological improvement.

Periodized versus non-periodized swimming training with equal total training load: Physiological, molecular and performance adaptations in Wistar rats

“…For all procedures, load was expressed as the percentage body mass (% bm) of the animal [ 14 ]. Loads were composed of lead and latex elastic and were tied to the back of each animal after a 14 d adaptation period, which was used to reduce stress and familiarize rats with the aquatic environment and swimming exercise regimens according to Lima et al [ 15 ]. The adaptation process was composed of the following steps: i) three d in which animals were exposed to shallow water for 15 min (5 cm deep); ii) five days of swimming within deep tanks (100 cm deep) for an increasing duration that spanned from 2 to 10 min throughout a 6 d period; iii) Six days of applying a progressively increasing load (3 to 15% bm), while the duration of exercise decreased (5 min to 30 s).…”

“…For all procedures, load was expressed as the percentage body mass (% bm) of the animal [14]. Loads were composed of lead and latex elastic and were tied to the back of each animal after a 14 d adaptation period, which was used to reduce stress and familiarize rats with the aquatic environment and swimming exercise regimens according to Lima et al [15]. The adaptation…”

Forced Swim Reliability for Exercise Testing in Rats by a Tethered Swimming Apparatus

“…To reduce the CLI pattern, it was suggested round tanks with large surface area and a fair amount of space between the water level and the top of the tank (Kregel et al, 2006). Previously, it was showed a reduction in the time of prevalence of CLI pattern after five swimming familiarization sessions within a total of 14 sessions at both moderate and several intensities without to promote physiological adaptation (Lima et al, 2017). Thus, adequate swimming tanks and previous swimming familiarization are the main strategy to reduce CLI pattern occurrence in forced swim tests.…”

“…There is a growing concern in establishing standards to investigate physiological responses in animals (Booth et al, 2009), and the wide use of forced swim without attention to its procedures is worrisome. Previous studies have investigated and proposed solutions for several forced swim issues (Scheer et al, 1947; McArdle and Montoye, 1966; Dawson and Horwath, 1970; Kramer et al, 1993; dos Reis et al, 2011a; Hohl et al, 2011; Lima et al, 2017), but none has addressed the swimming patterns specifically. Only by observation, it is possible to realize that rats can behave distinctively during forced swim tests.…”

Moderate intensity swimming training on bone mineral density preservation under food restriction in female rats

“…The EG and FREG were submitted to the aquatic environment adaptation using a protocol adapted from previous studies 27 , 28 . The aquatic adaptation lasted for 6 days, with progressive time (5 to 20 minutes), depth water (10 to 80 cm), and overload exposure (0 to 3% of body mass).…”