Determining the Optimal Workrate for Cycle Ergometer Verification Phase Testing in Males with Obesity.

Jenny M Mahoney,Ailish C Sheard,Brett R Baughman,Brandon J Sawyer

doi:10.3390/sports9020030

Jenny M Mahoney, Ailish C Sheard + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/sports9020030

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Abstract

The aim of the present study was to assess the validity of verification phase (VP) testing and a 3 min all-out test to determine critical power (CP) in males with obesity. Nine young adult males with a body mass index (BMI) ≥ 30 kg·m−2 completed a cycle ergometer ramp-style VO2max test, four randomized VP tests at 80, 90, 100, and 105% of maximum wattage attained during the ramp test, and a 3 min all-out test. There was a significant main effect for VO2max across all five tests (p = 0.049). Individually, 8 of 9 participants attained a higher VO2max (L/min) during a VP test compared to the ramp test. A trend (p = 0.06) was observed for VO2max during the 90% VP test (3.61 ± 0.54 L/min) when compared to the ramp test (3.37 ± 0.39 L/min). A significantly higher VO2max (p = 0.016) was found in the VP tests that occurred below 130% of CP wattage (N = 15, VO2max = 3.76 ± 0.52 L/min) compared to those that were above (N = 21, VO2max = 3.36 ± 0.41 L/min). Our findings suggest submaximal VP tests at 90% may elicit the highest VO2max in males with obesity and there may be merit in using % of CP wattage to determine optimal VP intensity.

Highlights

The most commonly used measurement to assess cardiorespiratory health and fitness is the maximum rate of oxygen consumption (VO2max )
Our findings suggest that submaximal verification phase (VP) testing on the cycle ergometer may result in the attainment of a higher VO2max compared to the ramp test in this population
Our study examined supramaximal, maximal, and submaximal workrates to elicit a VO2max in males with obesity

Summary

Introduction

The most commonly used measurement to assess cardiorespiratory health and fitness is the maximum rate of oxygen consumption (VO2max ). A more applicable criterion that can be used for a wide variety of methodologies, protocols, and participants is verification phase (VP) testing. This technique uses a constant workrate bout of exercise following the ramp test to confirm the VO2max achieved during the initial ramp test. By establishing maximal workrate during the ramp test, researchers are able to choose a verification phase intensity (constant workrate) that falls above critical power (IE: In the severe domain) [10,11] which will lead to exhaustion at VO2max. A supramaximal rate of the initial maximum workrate is applied [4,6,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25] but some evidence suggests maximal [10] and submaximal workrates [3,17,21,26,27] are capable of eliciting a ‘true’

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