All out anaerobic capacity tests on cycle ergometers

Summary

We have studied the effects of the braking force on the results of an anaerobic capacity test derived from the Wingate test (an all out 45 s exercise on a Monark 864 cycle ergometer against a given force at the fastest velocity from the beginning to the end of the test). Seven men and seven women participated in the study and performed a total of 63 all-out tests against different braking forces. The same subjects performed a force-velocity test on the same cycle ergometer. Since the relationship between force and velocity is approximately linear for peak velocities between 100 and 200 rev·min⁻¹ (Pérès et al. 1981 a, b; Nadeau et al. 1983; Vandewalle et al. 1983) we characterized each subject by three parameters: P₀ (the intercept of the force-velocity regression line with the force axis), V₀ (the intercept of the regression line with the velocity axis) and W_max (maximal power). The relationship between force and mean power was parabolic for the allout anaerobic capacity test. In the present study the optimal force (the force giving the maximal value of mean power during an all out test) was higher for the men (approximately 1 N·kg BW⁻¹) than the force proposed by others (0.853 N·kg BW⁻¹ for Dotan and Bar-Or 1983). However, because of the parabolic relationship between force and mean power, the mean power which corresponds to the optimal force was approximately the same in both studies. The optimal force of the women was equal to 0.9 N·kg BW⁻¹ (0.844 N·kg BW⁻¹ for Dotan and Bar-Or 1983). The optimal force was approximately equal to 47% of P₀ for both men and women. In our study maximal anaerobic power and anaerobic capacity could be evaluated with the same force. There was no difference between the men and the women in the anaerobic capacity test when force, mean velocity and mean power were expressed as percentage of P₀, V₀ and W_max.