Ventilatory Threshold in Various Groups of Highly Trained Athletes

Abstract

The ventilatory threshold (VT) was determined on a treadmill in highly trained male marathon, male and female long-distance, young male long-distance, adult male and female and young female middle-distance runners, modern pentathlonists, adult canoeists of both sexes, young male canoeists and football players, and on a bicycle ergometer in table tennis players, water slalom paddlers, young female canoeists rowers, and ice hockey players. Young female canoeists were also examined on the paddling ergometer and rowers on the rowing ergometer. VT expressed in %VO2 max was higher the longer the duration of racing performance (in marathoners 86.7%). %VO2 max at the VT level depends on the type of load and is higher the better the organism is adapted to a load. In young female canoeists and rowers examined on the bicycle ergometer, we found the VT level at 74.2% and 74.6% of %VO2 max, respectively. In the case of specific loading, we recorded 84.8% and 85.0% of %VO2 max, respectively, in the same athletes. In the case of nonspecific loading highly trained individuals may have low VT values close to the level characteristic for normal subjects. In relatively equally trained young and adult athletes we did not find significant differences in %VO2 max at the VT level (for long-distance runners, 85.2% and 85.3%, respectively, in female middle-distance runners, 82.8% and 82.7%, respectively, and in canoeists 81.3% and 78.9% of %VO2 max, respectively).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Physiological and functional characteristics of adolescent athletes in several sports: impications for talent identification

“…His moderately trained college players had a threshold value of 70.5% of maximal oxygen uptake, which is somewhat lower than the values reported by several other investigators. The adult players in our older study (Bunc et al, 1987) had a % VO2max value of 80.5%. Rhodes et al (1986) found the same value of %VO2max in the Canadian Olympic Team and considered it to be "remarkably high for anaerobically trained athletes".…”

“…Metabolic adaptation, which can be indirectly characterized as the ability to utilize effective the functional capacity of the organism during a prolonged period, can be estimated as the percentage of maximal functional variables (mainly maximal oxygen uptake) at VT (Bunc et al, 1987). In untrained subjects, % VO2max.kg -1 is in the range of 50%-70% of maximal oxygen uptake; in trained subjects, values are in the range of 80%-90% of VO2max (Bunc et al, 1987;Wilmore and Costill, 1994) The higher the level of adaptation to physical activity, the higher the values of %VO2max at the VT level.…”

“…In untrained subjects, % VO2max.kg -1 is in the range of 50%-70% of maximal oxygen uptake; in trained subjects, values are in the range of 80%-90% of VO2max (Bunc et al, 1987;Wilmore and Costill, 1994) The higher the level of adaptation to physical activity, the higher the values of %VO2max at the VT level. The untrained children of the same age as our young players, which were evaluated in our laboratory by the same protocol had values of %VO2max in the range of 60-70%.…”

“…These changes are most unlikely to occur during a single year. This suggests that the maximal oxygen uptake related to kg body mass can be changed in trained athletes only with a great difficulty, consequently it has a little practical use for evaluating the effect of the training stimulus on the course of adaptation to this level of exercise (Brooks, 1985;Bunc et al, 1987;Costill, 1976).…”

“…Although many non-invasive methods may be used, a nonlinear increase in pulmonary ventilation with respect of VO2 or VCO2 is at present the simplest, and probably the most accurate method for determining the VT. The criterion for VT determination was a non-linear increase in pulmonary ventilation versus VO2 or VCO2 (Bunc et al, 1987). The ventilatory threshold was assessed by means of a two-compartment linear model using these relationships.…”