Physiological response and biomarkers in kickboxing - systematic review

Abstract

Kickboxing is a relatively young sport with growing popularity across the World. There is a rapidly growing need for clear and valid detailed specific information about the effects of kickboxing as an activity. Therefore, this research aimed to collect all legitimate evidence about the acute and chronic physiological response, as well as monitoring and utilization of specific biomarkers in kickboxing. For this systematic review, the authors conducted research in the three relevant scientific bases and one search engine for this specific topic, PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar. After title and abstract screening, and review of full-text manuscripts regarding inclusion criteria, 16 studies were included in the review. Studies were sorted according to the type of research methods used. Results revealed a positive chronic impact of kickboxing on the overall athletes' health, speaking of hormonal, blood, and immune parameters. Although, the acute reaction of athletes' organisms includes the increase in levels of cortisol, growth hormone, testosterone, glucose, indicators of lipid peroxidation activity, H+, BEecf, lactic acid, and pyruvic acid, while the levels of myostatin and irisin tend to decrease. Such results confirm kickboxing as a high-demand anaerobic glycolytic activity. Secondly, the currently available analyses of the greatest value for monitoring in competitive kickboxing are hormonal, especially for testosterone & cortisol, immunoassays & saliva assays for immunity tracking, and genetic analyses as auxiliary tools. Further investigations should include females, kickboxing discipline differentiation, weight and age stratification, and differentiation.