Determination of Anaerobic Threshold by Monitoring the O2 Pulse Changes in Endurance Cyclists

The purpose of this study was to determine the validity of anaerobic threshold (AnT)-equivalent to the second turn point for lactate (LTP2)-estimation using the O2 pulse changes in highly trained endurance cyclists who do not show heart rate deflection point (HRDP) during incremental testing. Sixteen endurance cyclists (age, 24.8 ± 4.7 years) and fifteen active men (age, 24.8 ± 3.7 years) performed an incremental cycling test to exhaustion. Pulmonary oxygen uptake (V[Combining Dot Above]O2) and other hemodynamic variables, heart rate, and blood lactate concentration were measured continuously throughout the test. O2 pulse anaerobic threshold (O2 pulse-AnT) was defined as the second turn point in O2 pulse-workload curve. LTP2 was considered as gold standard assessment of AnT and was applied to confirm the validity of O2 pulse-AnT. Intraclass correlation coefficients and the Bland-Altman method were used to determine the relationship and agreement between the O2 corresponding to LTP2 and O2 pulse-AnT, respectively. The active men and 68.7% of the endurance cyclists showed HRDP, whereas all subjects showed O2 pulse-AnT during incremental testing. In both groups, the values for V[Combining Dot Above]O2 corresponding to LTP2 were not significantly different from the V[Combining Dot Above]O2 at O2 pulse-AnT. The V[Combining Dot Above]O2 at LTP2 and O2 pulse-AnT were highly correlated (endurance cyclists: R = 0.68; standard error of estimate [SEE] = 3.74 ml·kg·min and active men: R = 0.58; SEE = 2.91 ml·kg·min) and Bland-Altman plot revealed the limit of agreement of O2 at LTP2 and O2 pulse-AnT differences between 5.1 and 8.6 ml·kg·min (95% CI). In summary, results of this study showed that the second turn point in the O2 pulse-workload curve occurs around LTP2. Therefore, using O2 pulse-AnT is recommended for the noninvasive determination of AnT in highly trained endurance cyclists who do not show HRDP during incremental exercise.