Time-motion analysis and physiological responses to karate official combat sessions: is there a difference between winners and defeated karatekas?
Karatekas predominantly use upper-limb karate techniques. Karate's nature is intermittent, with fighting activities representing ~6% of total combat's duration and ~84% of actions lasting less than 2 s, with ~21-s mean time interval in between. Kumite combat sessions induced high La and near-maximal cardiovascular strain. Other key success factors should be investigated to properly discriminate winners and defeated athletes.
These results suggest that CO may help promote an anti-inflammatory environment during intrauterine infections by inhibiting TNF-α and IL-1β production.