The effects of combined arterial de-oxygenation and systemic cooling on the rate of muscular fatigue development

Cooling and fatigue are known to have similar effects on muscle performance and physiology [1]. Studies have shown a significantly increased rate of fatigue development during both low, and high intensity work [2, 3]. Numerous researchers have also reported that acute hypoxemia exaggerates the rate of fatigue development, centrally [4, 5, 6, 7] and peripherally [7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]. While abundant research exists on cold and hypoxic stressors separately, the interactive effects of combined exposure on the rate of muscle fatigue development remains unexamined. We hypothesised that relative to baseline performance levels, independent exposure to arterial de-oxygenation and systemic cooling will induce a significant increase on post exercise fatigue, compared to values observed during thermoneutral normoxia. During combined hypoxic-cold exposure, we expected a significant synergistic interaction on post exercise fatigue, with peripheral blood flow reductions during cold accentuating the fatiguing effect of low arterial oxygenation.