Physiological study of basketball training on athletes’ heart rate recovery and fatigue tolerance

This research explored the physiological changes and fatigue tolerance acquisition as a result of a basketball-specific training program for elite athletes. 30 male basketball players (10 elite, 10 sub-elite, and 10 control) were recruited for a 12-week training program. During the intervention period, heart rate recovery, fatigue tolerance and blood lactate analysis were collected. Evidence from this study indicates that elite athletes are superior in heart rate recovery, who achieve a decrease of 40 ± 2.5 bpm in the first minute as post-exercise heart rate, while the sub-elite and control participants had 35 ± 3.2 bpm and 30 ± 3.8 bpm respectively. Fatigue tolerance testing results shows a statistical significance in performance maintenance time between elite (75 ± 8 min) and sub-elite athletes (45 ± 6 min). Training load and physiological parameters r = 0.78, p < 0.01; fatigue tolerance and performance maintenance r = 0.82, p < 0.01. Alterations of autonomic regulation were observed in athletes after completing the systematic basketball specific training. The results also suggest that basketball-specific physiological conditioning training develops fatigue resistance and allow for effective basketball performance.