Remote ischemic preconditioning accelerates systemic O2 dynamics and enhances endurance during work‐to‐work cycling exercise

The effect of remote ischemic preconditioning (RIPC) on whole‐body exercise performance and its potential mechanism remains poorly understood. In this study, we examined whether RIPC can accelerate systemic and local O2 dynamics and can enhance endurance during the work‐to‐work cycling exercise. Thirteen healthy men were instructed to perform the work‐to‐work test, which was preceded by the RIPC (bilateral arm occlusion, 3 × 5 minutes) or control (CON; no occlusion) condition. This test involved gradually increasing the exercise intensity as follows: low intensity at 30 W for 3 minutes, moderate intensity at 90% of the gas exchange threshold (GET) for 4 minutes, and severe intensity at 70% of the difference between the GET and VO2 peak until exhaustion. During the test, breath‐by‐breath pulmonary VO2 and near‐infrared spectroscopy‐derived vastus lateralis muscle deoxygenation were recorded continuously. Pulmonary VO2 dynamics during moderate‐intensity exercise was significantly faster in RIPC than in CON. In contrast, no such difference in muscle deoxygenation kinetics was observed between the two conditions. Time until exhaustion during severe‐intensity exercise was significantly longer in RIPC than in CON. These findings suggest that RIPC may be a beneficial strategy for enhancing whole‐body exercise performance, which may partially result from accelerated systemic O2 dynamics during exercise.