Can Mitochondria Help Athletes Make Gains?
The muscles of elite endurance athletes boast a large number of highly efficient mitochondria. Unlocking the secrets of these cellular components could benefit future Olympic athletes.
Doi: https: //doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-00817-2
Commentary
Athletes with endurance needs pack more of their aerobic power plant into their muscle cells than the average person. However, different mitochondrial performance does not guarantee victory in competition, so all elite athletes push the envelope in search of small advantages, and mitochondria are one of the targets for small gains.
Mitochondria
Most mitochondria, in the form of discrete beans, are found in textbooks in the liver, but in muscle cells they form an extensive tubular network. Carsten Lundby, an exercise physiologist at Norway's Inland University of Applied Sciences, explains that the structure is most similar to a clump of seaweed or spaghetti.
Mitochondria are also highly dynamic, constantly participating and separating, making them trainable organs. In one experiment, the amount of mitochondria in muscle was observed to increase after only 14 days of sustained exercise, and neither blood volume nor heart size expanded in such a short timeframe.
For less active people, prolonged exercise causes physiological stress, which increases core temperature and heart rate and makes the blood more acidic as lactic acid builds up. From that response, it has been explained that the body does increase the expression of a number of genes, including those that make mitochondria and mitochondrial proteins, and at the same time accelerates the removal of old mitochondria and dysfunctional segments.
Experiment #1
Francesca Amati, an exercise physiologist at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, and her colleagues were studying the effects of exercise training on 26 sedentary elderly people.
The experiment involved three training sessions a week for four months, and they observed that proteins in the mitochondria came together to form a complex that allowed electrons to pass through more efficiently.
However, it was stated that these adaptations take time to develop and that the amount and intensity of training is critical to the quantity and quality of mitochondria and that these are not permanent. The half-life of muscle mitochondria is said to be one to two weeks, so without constant activity, the number present in the muscle can rapidly decline.
Experiment #2
In November 2020, an experiment was conducted on 50 high-level amateur cyclists to test the effects of thermal training.
In this experiment, one group was cycled in a chamber at 38°C, another group was cycled at ambient temperature, and another group wore suits designed to retain body heat.
Training was divided into regular workouts plus one 50-minute session per day, five days a week, for five weeks. The results show that the insulated body suit enhances athletic performance. This is thought to be due to the production of heat shock proteins (HSPs) when training in the heat.
