Determination of maximal aerobic power during upper-body exercise

The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate four protocols for their effectiveness in eliciting maximal aerobic power (peak VO2) during arm-crank exercise. Comparisons were made 1) between a continuous (CON) and an intermittent (INT) protocol (both employed a crank rate of 50 rpm) and 2) among the CON protocols employing crank rates of 30, 50, or 70 rpm. For the first group of experiments no significant (P greater than 0.05) differences were found between the CON and INT protocols for peak VO2, maximal pulmonary ventilation (VEmax), maximal heart rate (HRmax), or maximal blood lactate (LAmax) responses. For the second group of experiments, the CON-50 was compared with the CON-30 and CON-70 protocols. In comparison to the CON-50, significantly higher peak VO2 (+10%) and VEmax (+14%) responses were elicited by the CON-70 protocol, whereas significantly lower peak VO2 (-11%), VEmax (-23%), HRmax (-8%), and LAmax (-29%) responses were elicited by the CON-30 protocol. Of the arm-crank protocols examined the combination of a continuous design and a crank rate of 70 rpm provided the most effective protocol to elicit peak VO2 values.