Mechanisms of Antioxidant’s Action on the Physical Performance of Athletes

The goal ‒ systematization of data on the mechanisms of natural antioxidant's action on metabolic bases of formation stimulation of physical performance of athletes. Methods. An analysis of the data of scientific and methodical literature and Internet. Thus, oxidative stress accompanying the intense physical loads in sportsmen causes violations of a structural-functional state of cellular and subcellular membranes, which is a factor provoking the ejection of lysosomal enzymes with proteinase activity outward and the accumulation of toxic products of the metabolism in the circulation, on the one hand, and the disturbance of genetic processes that can control these homeostatic reconstructions, on the other hand. This substantiates the expediency of the application of antioxidants in the presence of oxidative stress and allows one to more thoroughly describe the various, slightly studied till now, mechanisms of implementation of a positive influence of these pharmacological substances on the physical workability of sportsmen. The established facts can become a basis for the development of finer mechanisms of metabolic influence of antioxidants on the organisms of sportsmen and their ergogenic activity during a training and competitions. A decrease in the physical workability of sportsmen is associated with the appearance of oxidative stress, which is revealed by the activation of the processes of peroxide oxidation of lipids with a simultaneous depression of the intrinsic antioxidative system of organism. The manifestations of oxidative stress on the level of cellular membranes represent adequately the total magnitude of oxidative stress. Antioxidative properties of the studied pharmacological agents of natural origin are coupled with the presence of a membranotropic action, which allows one to refer the preparations with such biological effects to ergogenic ones. Violation of a structural-functional state of membranes of erythrocytes due to oxidative stress causes a disturbance of their shape and volume, which influences mediately the process of transport of oxygen to muscular tissues of sportsmen and, thus, decreases the physical workability. Increase in the permeability of cellular and subcellular membranes is accompanied by the ejection of lysosomal proteinases from cells and provokes the process of limited proteolysis, which causes the accumulation of toxic products of the uncompleted metabolism and influences negatively the stimulation of the workability. The accumulation of prooxidant factors can induce the apoptosis of cells, which becomes a factor decreasing the physical workability under physical loads. Establishment of the antioxidative action of probiotics creates the additional metabolic preconditions for a growth of the physical workability of sportsmen. Application of natural antioxidants with metabolitotropic character, which have different structures and belong to different pharmacological classes, is accompanied by a stimulation of the physical workability, in the first turn, due to the improvement of a state of cellular and subcellular membranes.