BackgroundThe influence of endurance training intensity and adaptation on serum cardiac markers is poorly understood and controversial; however, no enough data observed the association of serum cardiac markers with VO2max. Therefore, we aimed to investigate whether serum cardiac markers are associated with maximum oxygen consumption (VO2max) in response to 12-week endurance training on amateur athletes.Methods15 apparently healthy male amateur athletes with 19.47 ± 1.30 years of age were recruited and participated in endurance training with 70%–80% maximal heart rate intensity for 35 min per session for the first week and 2 min increments each week from the second to the last week for a period of 12 weeks. VO2max and serum cardiac markers (lactate dehydrogenase [LDH], creatine kinase myocardial band (CK-MB) and cardiac troponin I [CTnI]) were assessed at the beginning of the training and after 12-week endurance training.ResultsThe result of CTnI indicated significantly (p < 0.01) and inversely (r = − 0.466) correlated with VO2max and CK-MB indicated significantly (p < 0.01) and inversely associated with VO2max (r = − 0.536) with moderate relationship. However, we did not find a significant association on LDH (p > 0.05) with VO2max in response to endurance training adaptation.ConclusionOur finding confirms our hypothesis that serum cardiac markers are inversely associated with estimated VO2max in response to endurance training adaptation.
