Abstract
Body mass index (BMI) is negatively correlated with cardiorespiratory fitness, measured by maximal or peak oxygen consumption (VO2peak). VO2peak measurements require heavy aerobic exercise to near exhaustion which increases the potential for adverse cardiovascular events. This study tests the hypothesis that VO2 measured at a fixed submaximal workload of 30 W is a surrogate for VO2peak. We studied 42 normotensive African-American female university students, 18–25 years of age. We measured VO2peak, blood pressure, and VO2 at a 30 W exercise workload and computed BMI. We found significant negative correlations between BMI and VO2peak (r = −0.41, P < 0.01) and between BMI and VO2 at 30 W (r = −0.53, P < 0.001). Compared to VO2peak, VO2 at 30 W increased the significance of the negative correlation with BMI. The heart rate-systolic pressure product at 30 W was positively correlated with BMI (r = 0.36, P < 0.01) and negatively correlated with VO2peak (r = −0.38, P < 0.001). The positive correlation between BMI and the heart rate-systolic pressure product and the greater negative correlation between VO2 and BMI at 30 W of exercise than that at exercise to fatigue suggest that normalized measurements of VO2 at the fixed exercise workload of 30 W could be useful surrogates for measurements of VO2peak.
Highlights
Aerobic exercise testing provides valuable data for measuring a person’s cardiorespiratory fitness and overall health
Low cardiorespiratory fitness makes it difficult for sedentary, overweight, and/or obese individuals to complete the high-intensity protocols required for VO2 max or VO2peak determinations [2]
Such exercise may put individuals with low cardiorespiratory fitness at risk for adverse cardiovascular events because determinations of VO2 max and VO2peak require substantial exertion to near exhaustion or fatigue [3, 4]. These limitations are consistent with the report that positive electrocardiographic indicators of cardiovascular disease are only 75% sensitive in women, compared to 90% sensitive in men and that African-American women appear to exhibit lower VO2peak than a matched population of Caucasian women [3]. These findings suggest that lack of reliable measures of cardiorespiratory fitness at submaximal workloads may limit our ability to evaluate the health status and prescribe appropriate exercise regimens for women
Summary
Aerobic exercise testing provides valuable data for measuring a person’s cardiorespiratory fitness and overall health. Such exercise may put individuals with low cardiorespiratory fitness at risk for adverse cardiovascular events because determinations of VO2 max and VO2peak require substantial exertion to near exhaustion or fatigue [3, 4] These limitations are consistent with the report that positive electrocardiographic indicators of cardiovascular disease are only 75% sensitive in women, compared to 90% sensitive in men and that African-American women appear to exhibit lower VO2peak than a matched population of Caucasian women [3]. These findings suggest that lack of reliable measures of cardiorespiratory fitness at submaximal workloads may limit our ability to evaluate the health status and prescribe appropriate exercise regimens for women. The present study tests the hypothesis that VO2 measured during submaximal exercise at a 30 W exercise workload is a surrogate for the VO2peak measurement, as a correlate of BMI and, of cardiorespiratory fitness
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