Does a central governor regulate maximal exercise during combined arm and leg exercise? A rebuttal

Abstract

max) is not regulated by a “gov-ernor” in the central nervous system. We argue that theirdata provide deWnitive evidence for the action of a centralgovernor. We begin by correcting certain factual errors.The authors suggest that the Central Governor Model(CGM) is a new theory. In fact, the existence of a governoreither in the brain or heart (to protect the ischemic heartduring maximal exercise–their interpretation) was origi-nally proposed by Hill et al. (1924) as previously argued(Noakes 2000; Noakes et al. 2004a). Furthermore, Brink-Elfegoun et al. (2007) do not base their understanding ofthe CGM on articles which fully describe our understand-ing of the CGM (Lambert et al. 2005; Noakes and St ClairGibson 2004; Noakes et al. 2004b; St Clair Gibson andNoakes 2004; Tucker et al. 2004).The authors write that there is a “lack of convincingexperimental evidence to support it (the CGM)” (p. 604).This is not correct. We have provided a substantial body ofevidence to show that exercise is regulated “in anticipation”by an intelligent, complex system (Ansley et al. 2004a, b;Kay et al. 2001; Marino et al. 2003, 2004; Marino 2004;Tucker et al. 2004, 2006), the function of which appears tobe the prevention of a catastrophic failure of homeostasis inany bodily system. The CGM does not address only the fac-tors that might limit exercise during the