Abstract
The accuracy of an exhaustive ramp incremental (RI) test to determine maximal oxygen uptake (O2max) was recently questioned and the utilization of a verification phase proposed as a gold standard. This study compared the oxygen uptake (O2) during a RI test to that obtained during a verification phase aimed to confirm attainment of O2max. Sixty-one healthy males [31 older (O) 65 ± 5 yrs; 30 younger (Y) 25 ± 4 yrs] performed a RI test (15–20 W/min for O and 25 W/min for Y). At the end of the RI test, a 5-min recovery period was followed by a verification phase of constant load cycling to fatigue at either 85% (n = 16) or 105% (n = 45) of the peak power output obtained from the RI test. The highest O2 after the RI test (39.8 ± 11.5 mL·kg−1·min−1) and the verification phase (40.1 ± 11.2 mL·kg−1·min−1) were not different (p = 0.33) and they were highly correlated (r = 0.99; p < 0.01). This response was not affected by age or intensity of the verification phase. The Bland-Altman analysis revealed a very small absolute bias (−0.25 mL·kg−1·min−1, not different from 0) and a precision of ±1.56 mL·kg−1·min−1 between measures. This study indicated that a verification phase does not highlight an under-estimation of O2max derived from a RI test, in a large and heterogeneous group of healthy younger and older men naïve to laboratory testing procedures. Moreover, only minor within-individual differences were observed between the maximal O2 elicited during the RI and the verification phase. Thus a verification phase does not add any validation of the determination of a O2max. Therefore, the recommendation that a verification phase should become a gold standard procedure, although initially appealing, is not supported by the experimental data.
Highlights
Exercise physiologists have been interested in the measurements of oxygen uptake (V O2) and maximal V O2 (V O2max) since early in the 20th century (Krogh and Lindhard, 1913; Hill and Lupton, 1923)
Time to exhaustion during the verification phase was greater when performing constant load exercise at 85% of peak power output (PO) (2.5 ± 0.4 min) compared to the constant load exercise performed at 105% of peak PO (1.7 ± 0.4 min) (p < 0.01)
This study compared the V O2 responses from a ramp incremental (RI) test to the limit of tolerance that was followed by a verification phase to exhaustion performed at intensities of either 85% or 105% of the peak PO observed at the end of the RI protocol, in a large and heterogeneous group of male participants that included older and younger individuals
Summary
Exercise physiologists have been interested in the measurements of oxygen uptake (V O2) and maximal V O2 (V O2max) since early in the 20th century (Krogh and Lindhard, 1913; Hill and Lupton, 1923). RI protocols allow for rapid determination of V O2max as well as other valuable indexes such as the exercise intensity thresholds; some researchers have questioned the accuracy of RI tests to consistently provide a true V O2max value as a plateau in V O2 is not always (or seldom) observed (Rossiter et al, 2006; Poole et al, 2008; Poole and Jones, 2017) To circumvent this limitation, secondary criteria such as an increase in blood lactate concentration [La] above 8 mmol·L−1, a heart rate response within 10 beats per minute (bpm) of the maximal predicted value, a respiratory exchange ratio (RER) higher than 1.10, and a rating of perceived exertion (RPE) >18, are commonly used to establish the attainment of a true V O2max response (ACSM, 2003). As indicated by Midgley et al (2007) and Poole et al (2008), secondary criteria do not seem valid for accurate determination of the attainment of V O2max
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