Construction and validation of the Wingate index model for elite athletes

The gold standard for measuring anaerobic fitness is the power cycle ergometer test, but this method is expensive and time-consuming, and it has negative effects on pre-competition performance. This study aims to utilize the strong correlation between accessible body composition indices and less accessible anaerobic power bicycle indices to establish and verify a Wingate Index Model.

A cohort of 993 male (age: 22.56 ± 3.30 years) and 450 female (age: 21.47 ± 2.70 years) athletes who participated in diverse sports were enrolled and completed the high-intensity power cycle test and body composition test, and the model formula was established based on these data. Totally, 283 participants were randomly selected to verify the formula using SPSS 22.0 and GraphPad Prism 9.4.1.

There was no significant difference between the value derived from the confirmed formula and the measured value of the instrument among the elite athletes (p > 0.05). The probabilities that the values obtained by the formula would fall within the 95 % confidence interval were as follows: Mpower(mean power): 94.7 %, Mpower/W(mean power/weight): 96.8 %, total work: 94.7 %, Ppower(peak power): 94.7 %, Ppower/W(peak power/weight): 95.8 %, and fatigue index: 93.6 %.

By constructing and validating multiple regression equations for the anaerobic power cycle and body composition indices, this study showed that the probabilities of the values obtained from the equations falling within the 95 % confidence interval were 94.7 % for Mpower, 96.8 % for Mpower/W, 94.7 % for total work, 94.7 % for Ppower, 95.8 % for Ppower/W, and 93.6 % for fatigue index. Therefore, these equations may have some practical value in predicting the elite athlete population.