Ventilatory threshold

Abstract: WASSERMAN, KARLMAN, BRIAN J. WHIPP, SANKAR IX KOYAL, AND WILLIAM L. BEAVER. Anaerobic threshold and respiratory gas exchange during exercise. J. Appl. Physiol. 35(Z): 236-243. 1973.-Alterations in gas exchange were studied in man during exercise increasing in increments of 15 w each minute, to determine the noninvasive indicators of the onset of metabolic acidosis (anaerobic metabolism). Expired airflow and CO 2 and 0 2 tensions at the mouth during the breath were continuously monitored with rapid1 y responding gas analyzers. These measurements were recorded directly as well as processed by a minicomputer, on-line, to give minute ventilation (VE), COP production #co& 02 consumption (voz), and the gas exchange ratio (R), breath-by-breath. The anaerobic threshold (AT) could be identified by the point of I) nonlinear increase in VE, 2) nonlinear increase in Vco2, 3) an increase in end-tidal 02 without a corresponding decrease in endtidal COz, and 4) an increase in R, as work rate was increased during an incremental exercise test. Of these measurements, R was found least sensitive. The AT was determined in 85 normal subjects between 17 and 91 years of age, by these techniques. The lower limit of normal was 45 w (KTo 2 = 1 liter/min), while values for very fit normal adults were as high as 180 w. The patients studied with cardiac disease above functional class I have lower anaerobic thresholds than the least fit normal subjects. The I-min incremental work rate test is associated with changes in gas exchange which can be used as sensitive on-line indicators of the AT, thus bypassing the need for measuring arterial lactate or acid-base parameters to indicate anaerobiosis.

Abstract: The public health problem of physical inactivity has proven resistant to research efforts aimed at elucidating its causes and interventions designed to alter its course. Thus, in most industrialized countries, the majority of the population is physically inactive or inadequately active. Most theoretical models of exercise behaviour assume that the decision to engage in exercise is based on cognitive factors (e.g. weighing pros and cons, appraising personal capabilities, evaluating sources of support). Another, still-under-appreciated, possibility is that these decisions are influenced by affective variables, such as whether previous exercise experiences were associated with pleasure or displeasure. This review examines 33 articles published from 1999 to 2009 on the relationship between exercise intensity and affective responses. Unlike 31 studies that were published until 1998 and were examined in a 1999 review, these more recent studies have provided evidence of a relation between the intensity of exercise and affective responses. Pleasure is reduced mainly above the ventilatory or lactate threshold or the onset of blood lactate accumulation. There are pleasant changes at sub-threshold intensities for most individuals, large inter-individual variability close to the ventilatory or lactate threshold and homogeneously negative changes at supra-threshold intensities. When the intensity is self-selected, rather than imposed, it appears to foster greater tolerance to higher intensity levels. The evidence of a doseresponse relation between exercise intensity and affect sets the stage for a reconsideration of the rationale behind current guidelines for exercise intensity prescription. Besides effectiveness and safety, it is becoming increasingly clear that the guidelines should take into account whether a certain level of exercise intensity would be likely to cause increases or decreases in pleasure.

Abstract: Endurance exercise training results in profound adaptations of the cardiorespiratory and neuromuscular systems that enhance the delivery of oxygen from the atmosphere to the mitochondria and enable a tighter regulation of muscle metabolism. These adaptations effect an improvement in endurance performance that is manifest as a rightward shift in the ‘velocity-time curve’. This shift enables athletes to exercise for longer at a given absolute exercise intensity, or to exercise at a higher exercise intensity for a given duration. There are 4 key parameters of aerobic fitness that affect the nature of the velocity-time curve that can be measured in the human athlete. These are the maximal oxygen uptake (V . O2max), exercise economy, the lactate/ventilatory threshold and oxygen uptake kinetics. Other parameters that may help determine endurance performance, and that are related to the other 4 parameters, are the velocity at V . O2max(V-V . O2max )a nd the maximal lactate steady state or critical power. This review considers the effect of endurance training on the key parameters of aerobic (endurance) fitness and attempts to relate these changes to the adaptations seen in the body’s physiological systems with training. The importance of improvements in the aerobic fitness parameters to the enhancement of endurance performance is highlighted, as are the training methods that may be considered optimal for facilitating such improvements. LEADING ARTICLE

Abstract: Beat-to-beat heart rate (HR) dynamics were studied by plotting each R-R interval as a function of the previous R-R interval (Poincare plot) during incremental doses of atropine followed by exercise for 10 subjects and during exercise without autonomic blockade for 31 subjects. A quantitative two-dimensional vector analysis of a Poincare plot was used by measuring separately the standard deviation of instantaneous beat-to-beat R-R interval variability (SD1) and the standard deviation of continuous long-term R-R interval variability (SD2) as well as the SD1/SD2 ratio. Quantitative Poincare measures were compared with linear measures of HR variability (HRV) and with approximate entropy (ApEn) at rest and during exercise. A linear progressive reduction was observed in SD1 during atropine administration, and it remained almost at the zero level during exercise after a parasympathetic blockade. Atropine resulted in more variable changes in SD2 and the SD1/SD2 ratio, but during exercise after parasympathetic blockade, a progressive increase was observed in the SD1/SD2 ratio until the end of exercise. The SD1/SD2 ratio had no significant correlations with the frequency domain measures of HRV. However, the SD1/SD2 ratio had a modest correlation with ApEn at rest (r = -0.69, P < 0.001), but not during exercise (r = 0.27, P = NS). All measures of vagal modulation of HR decreased progressively until the ventilatory threshold level was reached, when sympathetic activation was reflected as changes in the SD1/SD2 ratio. These results show that quantitative two-dimensional vector analysis of a Poincare plot can provide useful information on vagal modulation of R-R interval dynamics during exercise that are not easily detected by linear summary measures of HRV or by ApEn.