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Updated: Jul 20, 2025
Evaluation of Blood Lactate and Plasma Insulin During High-intensity Exercise by Antecubital Vein Catheterization
Published on: May 18, 2018
Subtetanic neuromuscular electrical stimulation can maintain Wingate test performance but augment blood lactate
Ryosuke Takeda1, Hiroya Nojima2, Taichi Nishikawa2,3
1Laboratory of Neuromuscular Biomechanics, School of Health and Sport Science, Chukyo University, 101 Tokodachi, Kaizu-cho, Toyota, Aichi, 470-0393, Japan. r.takeda@mng.chukyo-u.ac.jp.
Purpose:
Concentration- and time-dependent effect of lactate on physiological adaptation (i.e., glycolytic adaptation and mitochondrial biogenesis) have been reported. Subtetanic neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) with voluntary exercise (VOLES) can increase blood lactate accumulation. However, whether this is also true that VOLES can enhance the blood lactate accumulation during sprint exercise is unknown. Thus, we investigated whether VOLES before the Wingate test can enhance blood lactate accumulation without compromising Wingate exercise performance.
Methods:
Fifteen healthy young males (mean [SD], age: 23 [4] years, body mass index: 22.0 [2.1] kg/m2) volunteered. After resting measurement, participants performed a 3-min intervention: VOLES (NMES with free-weight cycling) or voluntary cycling alone, which matched exercise intensity with VOLES (VOL, 43.6 [8.0] watt). Then, they performed the Wingate test with 30 min free-weight cycling recovery. The blood lactate concentration ([La]b) was assessed at the end of resting and intervention, and recovery at 1, 3, 5, 10, 20, and 30 min.
Results:
[La]b during intervention was higher with VOLES than VOL (P = 0.011). The increase in [La]b after the Wingate test was maintained for longer with VOLES than VOL at 10- and 20-min recovery (P = 0.014 and 0.023, respectively). Based on the Wingate test, peak power, mean power, and the rate of decline were not significantly different between VOLES and VOL (P = 0.184, 0.201, and 0.483, respectively).
Conclusion:
The combination of subtetanic NMES with voluntary exercise before the Wingate test has the potential to enhance blood lactate accumulation. Importantly, this combined approach does not compromise Wingate exercise performance compared to voluntary exercise alone.
