Estimates of Critical Power and Anaerobic Work Capacity from a Single, All-Out Test of Less than 3-Min

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if Critical Power (CP) and Anaerobic Work Capacity (AWC) could be estimated from a single, all-out test of less than 3-min. Twenty-eight subjects (mean ± SD: age 23.3 ± 3.3 years, body mass 71.6 ± 16 kg) performed an incremental cycle ergometer test to exhaustion to determine peak oxygen consumption rate and heart rate peak. The 3-min all-out test was used to determine the criterion and six estimated values of CP and AWC. The criterion critical power (CP 180 ) and anaerobic work capacity (AWC 180 ) values were determined from the 3-min all-out test and were expressed as 30-s averages (155-180-s). The six estimated CP and AWC values were calculated from 30-s averages at decreasing 10-s intervals from 145 to 170-s (CP 170 and AWC 170 ), 135 to 160-s (CP 160 and AWC 160 ), 125 to 150-s (CP 150 and AWC 150 ), 115 to 140-s (CP 140 and AWC 140 ), 105 to 130-s (CP 130 and AWC 130 ), and 95 to 120-s (CP 120 and AWC 120 ). Mean differences, total error, constant error, standard error of the estimate, and correlations were used to compare the criterion to the estimated CP and AWC values. The results of the present study indicated that 150-s was the shortest test duration that resulted in non-significant differences between the criterion (CP 180 and AWC 180 ) and estimated CP (CP 150 ) and AWC (AWC 150 ) values. The subsequent validation analyses showed that there were close agreements for the estimated CP 150 and AWC 150 versus the criterion (CP 180 and AWC 180 ) values. Therefore, the current findings indicated that estimates of CP and AWC were not affected by shortening the test by 30-s. Reducing the length of the test to 2.5 minutes provides a less strenuous, yet valid protocol for estimating CP and AWC.