The Effects of a Personal Oxygen Supplement on Performance, Recovery, and Cognitive Function During and After Exhaustive Exercise

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the effects of a personal oxygen supplement (OS) on performance during exhaustive exercise, respiratory responses during exhaustive exercise, and cognitive function after exhaustive exercise. The participants for this blind placebo-controlled experiment were apparently healthy college-aged adults (n = 20). First, VO2max was assessed (47.6 ± 9.8 ml O2·kg(-1)·min(-1)). Participants then ran 2 trials at 80% of VO2max speed to exhaustion and received either a placebo (compressed air) or personal OS. Psychomotor vigilance testing (PVT) was performed before and after each trial. Performance between treatments was evaluated through repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) and was not found to be different (p = 0.335, ηp2 = 0.052), and order (placebo first or personal OS first) was not significant within the model (p = 0.305, ηp2 = 0.058). Mean times were 1,057.6 ± 619.8 seconds for the oxygen trials and 992.5 ± 463.1 seconds for the placebo trials. Repeated measures ANOVAs were used to assess minute ventilation (Ve, L·min(-1)) and VCO2 (L·O2·min(-1)) during exercise and recovery, mean heart rate during recovery, and PVT results. Treatment was nonsignificant (p > 0.05) nor were any interaction effects (treatment × time, p > 0.05) for any variables. The results of this study suggest that a personal OS had no effect on performance and did not affect ventilation even at the time directly surrounding the application. The results of the study also suggest that personal OS do not enhance exercise recovery or cognition during exercise recovery.