VALIDITY, RELIABILITY, AND SPECIFICITY OF A MAXIMAL AEROBIC DANCE BENCH STEP PROTOCOL

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to design and examine the validity, reliability, and specificity of an aerobic dance bench step test (ADBST). Female aerobic dance exercisers (N = 18; 20.7 ± 1.5 yrs) performed 3 maximal GXTs: 2 ADBST; 1 treadmill test (TMT). The ADBST consisted of 6, 3-min progressive stages of alternate lead basic step, basic step with biceps curls, knee raise with pull-down, repeater knee with pull-down, lateral lunge with pull-down, and side squat with shoulder presses. Steps were performed at 32 steps.min−1 on an 8″ step for stages 1–3, and 10″ step for stages 4–6. HR (b.min−1), peak and max VO2 (ml.kg−1.min−1), % HR max, % VO2max, VE (I.min−1, VE/VO2, RER, total exercise time (TET), and RPEs were recorded at the end of each stage and at volitional exhaustion for each test. Concurrent validity of the ADBST to the TMT for max HR was [r = .91; 95% CI = .77–97, SEE = 3.38]. For max VO2 [r = .85; 95% CI =.64−.94; SEE = 3.20]. Test-retest reliability was examined using one-way ANOVA intraclass correlation coefficients (Baumgartner & Jackson, 1999). High reliability was found between ADBST1 and ADBST2 (HR max: R = .92; 95% CI =.80−.97;VO2 max: R = .98; 95%CI =.95–.99. To test the specificity of the ADBST to the TMT paired t-tests were calculated. A significant difference was found for max HR [t = −8.21 p = .0001, f = −1.90, 1-β = .99]. No significant difference was found for VO2max [t = 1.54, p =.14, f = .36, 1-β = .99]. It was concluded that the ADBST was both a valid and reliable protocol for assessing cardiorespiratory responses in these aerobic dance exercisers. Max HR obtained from the criterion TMT was lower than from an ADBST. When training HR is prescribed from TMT HR max, HR is under-estimated by 5–7 b.min−1 (i.e., ∼2 ml-kg−1min−1) for aerobic dance bench step exercise. The viability of an ADBST protocol needs further study.