Fatty acids significance in improvement athlete’s aerobic performance: review and prospects

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Abstract

Fats are the second most important energy substrates after carbohydrates. They are actively used as energy substrate in skeletal and cardiac muscles during aerobic exercise. This review presents modern data about the effects of different exercise intensities on lipid metabolism, the profile of plasma fatty acids (FAs), and the rate of fat oxidation. FAs metabolism is chiefly determined by exercise intensities and diets of athletes. Mobilization and oxidation of FAs extension with the increase of duration and intensity exercise, and under cold conditions when fats are used for energy supply and thermoregulation. The essential and saturated FAs are the most labile to exercise. An interesting direction for future research would be a study of maximal fat oxidation as a new marker of aerobic performance (AP), since there are practically no literature resources on the contribution of different classes of FAs to the AР in elite athletes. In addition, there is no clear understanding of how FAs oxidation is regulated and limited in skeletal muscles during a high-intensity exercise, of the mechanisms of transport and utilization of different classes of FAs depending on diet and training status. Such understanding would allow us to conduct more thorough monitoring of the functional status of athletes, and design the training process suitable to aerobic loads.

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About the authors

А. Yu. Lyudinina

Department of Ecological and Medical Physiology, Institute of Physiology, Ural Branch, RAS

Author for correspondence.
Email: salu_06@inbox.ru
Russian Federation, Syktyvkar

E. A. Bushmanova

Department of Ecological and Medical Physiology, Institute of Physiology, Ural Branch, RAS

Email: salu_06@inbox.ru
Russian Federation, Syktyvkar

Е. R. Bojko

Department of Ecological and Medical Physiology, Institute of Physiology, Ural Branch, RAS

Email: salu_06@inbox.ru
Russian Federation, Syktyvkar

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2. Fig. 1. The role of essential n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in optimizing physical performance. DHA — docosahexaenoic acid, EPA — eicosapentaenoic acid, CRP — C-reactive protein, TNFα — tumor necrosis factor α.

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3. Fig. 2. Illustration of fat oxidation depending on the intensity of physical activity during bicycle ergometric testing (Oxycon Pro). FOR is the rate of fat oxidation, FATmax is the load power (in W) at which FORmax (maximum rate of fat oxidation) is observed.

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4. Fig. 3. Crossover concept (adapted from [13]). The relative (%) contribution of fats decreases as the intensity of the load increases, with a corresponding increase in the relative (%) contribution of carbohydrates. The crossover point describes the moment when carbohydrate oxidation predominates over fat oxidation. FOmax is the maximum fat oxidation, VO2max is the maximum oxygen consumption.

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5. Fig. 4. Micronutrient consumption during physical activity. See Fig. 3 for legend.

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