Ventilatory and occlusion-pressure responses to exercise in trained and untrained children

Pattern of breathing and mouth occlusion pressure were investigated during an incremental and exhaustive ergocycle test in untrained and trained 11 to 13 year old boys. At each level of exercise, the trained group had lower ventilation, a lower respiratory equivalent, and a lower respiratory rate. These results suggest that trained subjects have more efficient ventilation. Lower ventilation coincided with a smaller mean inspiratory flow (VT/TI), while the ratio of inspiratory to total breath (TI/TTOT) was unchanged. In contrast, mouth occlusion pressure and the index of neuromuscular inspiratory drive were the same up to 60 W for the two groups, and tended to be slightly lower in the trained boys above this level.