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The incidence of plateau at 2max is affected by a bout of prior‐priming exercise
Author(s) -
Gordon Dan,
Schaitel Kari,
Pennefather Amy,
Gernigon Marie,
Keiller Don,
Barnes Richard
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
clinical physiology and functional imaging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.608
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1475-097X
pISSN - 1475-0961
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-097x.2011.01052.x
Subject(s) - medicine , vo2 max , cycling , zoology , heart rate , blood pressure , archaeology , biology , history
Summary The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of 6 min of prior‐priming exercise on the incidence of plateau at 2max . Twelve trained cyclists (age, 21 ± 3 years; height, 175·0 ± 8·0 cm; weight, 69·0 ± 10·4 kg; maximal oxygen uptake ( 2max ), 56·3 ± 6·9 ml kg −1 min −1 ) completed three incremental tests to volitional exhaustion, which were classified as unprimed (UP), heavy‐primed (HP) and severe‐primed (SP), at a work rate of 1 W 2 s −1 , from an initial workload of 100 W, for the determination of 2max . 2max trial in the HP and SP conditions was preceded by a period of 4‐min unloaded cycling followed by a further 6 min of constant load cycling at Δ50% 2 gas exchange threshold (GET)‐ 2max (HP) and Δ75% 2 GET‐ 2max (SP). Expired air was recorded on a breath‐by‐breath basis during all trials. The criteria adopted for a plateau in 2max was a Δ 2 over the final two consecutive 30‐s sampling periods ≤2·1 ml kg −1 min −1 . There was a significant increase in plateau responses between the UP (50%) and HP (100%) conditions ( P = 0·001) coupled with a significant change in the slope of the regression line during the final 60 s of the 2max test, UP and HP ( P = 0·0299) and UP and SP ( P = 0·0296). These data suggest that a bout of prior‐priming exercise promotes an increased incidence of plateau responses at VO 2max . It is suggested that future studies address how such an approach can be adopted without prior knowledge of GET.