INCREMENT SIZE AFFECTS ESTIMATION OF MAXIMAL LACTATE STEADY STATE

Foxdal, P., Sjodin, A., & Sojdin, B. (1995). Comparison of blood lactate concentrations obtained during incremental and constant intensity exercise. International Journal of Sports Medicine, 17, 360-365.

Differences in blood lactate concentrations obtained during step-wise incremental and constant running exercise at the same intensities were investigated. Increments of 5 x 4, 5 x 6, and 5 x 8 minutes were compared on a running treadmill.

The following were found.

Implication. When testing athletes who have performed considerable endurance work, and an incremental test is used to assess anaerobic threshold, maximum lactate steady state, etc., the duration of each increment needs to be quite long because short-period intervals will lead to erroneous inferences. For trained runners, 8 minutes appears to be the minimum period to be spent at each step of an incremental testing procedure.

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