Effects of hyperbaric oxygen treatment on post-exercise muscle glycogen resynthesis

When athletes compete multiple times in a single day, the rapid restoration of depleted muscle glycogen is essential to maintain performance.However, athletes are often unable to ingest sufficient carbohydrate after competition to optimize glycogen resynthesis, indicating the need for the development of recovery strategies that do not rely solely on nutritional approaches.Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) treatment on post-exercise muscle glycogen resynthesis.Eight-week-old male C57BL/6J mice performed 60 min of treadmill running and were then given an oral glucose solution (2 g/kg body weight) before recovering either under normobaric (CON) or HBO conditions.HBO treatment was exposed at 1.3 or 2.5 atmospheres absolute (ATA) with 100% O2.After a 2-h recovery period, the plantaris and soleus muscles were excised and glycogen concentrations were determined.At 1.3 ATA, there were no significant differences in glycogen concentration between the CON and HBO groups in either muscle.In contrast, under the 2.5 ATA condition, glycogen concentrations in both muscles were significantly higher in the CON group than in the POST group (POST: muscle sampled immediately after exercise, before any recovery intervention).In the HBO group, glycogen concentrations were not significantly different from those in the POST group but were significantly lower than those in the 4 CON group.Thus, these findings suggest that exposure to high-pressure HBO treatment (2.5 ATA) may attenuate post-exercise muscle glycogen resynthesis.