EVALUATION OF NICOTINE EFFECTS ON MUSCLE PERFORMANCE UNDER WINGATE ANAEROBIC TEST CONDITION

Nicotine is a naturally occurring addictive alkaloid and in some cases, is a fatal drug. The long-term noxious effects of nicotine have been reported by means of publications to stop the use of nicotine in the form of tobacco. In this study the use of nicotinic substances was tested during Wingate Anaerobic Tests (WAnT) on collegiate football athletes. These tests had three possible results: ergogenic, ergolytic or no effect. The subjects were 12 University of Ataturk University football players between the ages of 19 - 23. They did a series of two tests on a Monarch cycle ergometer for 30 seconds at a time on two separate days. One day post-nicotine gum consumption, the another day post-placebo gum consumption. The data received was considered significant with a p-value < 0.05. This experiment showed nicotine’s effect on: peak anaerobic power (P = 0.34), anaerobic capacity (P = 0.92) and anaerobic fatigue percentage (P = 0.33) in the human body during a WAnT. So, the data received from this experiment were concluded not to be statistically significant. Key Words: Nicotine, Wingate test, Anaerobic, Muscle Performance