The reproducibility of an endurance performance test in adolescent cyclists

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to measure the reproducibility of a performance test in well-trained adolescent cyclists. Eight male and one female cyclist [mean age 15.7 (0.7) y] participated in the study. Lactate threshold (LT) and peak VO2 were assessed. The performance test was repeated on three separate days and consisted of 30 min of steady state (SS) cycling at 80% of individual LT. Immediately after the SS cycling a time trial (TT) started with the cyclists having to complete a fixed amount of work as fast as possible. Reliability was assessed for the TT with the coefficient of variation (CV) as the (SD/mean)*100 for each participant, intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) and typical error (SD of the difference in mean /radical2). The group mean (SD) times for the TT were TT1 1889 (306), TT2 1857 (283) and TT3 1953 (279) s respectively. Individual CV varied from 0.25% to 10%. The ICC for TT1/2 and 2/3 were r = 0.78 and 0.93 (P<0.05). The typical errors, expressed as a CV% on the log transformed performance times, were 7.3 and 3.7% for TT1/2 and TT2/3 respectively. The largest individual CVs were observed between TT1 and TT2. The differences in CV and SD among the three TTs indicate that trial two and three were more reliable than TT1, suggesting a habituation trial is needed. It is concluded that the present performance test is reliable in adolescent cyclists with lower variation between trials 2 and 3.

Growth, maturity profile and peak vo2 of 11 year-old male soccer players

“…Young athletes tend to have higher levels of aerobic power per unit body mass than the general population children and youth non-athletes (Malina, Bouchard & Bar-Or, 2004). This trend finds echo in previous researches (Eisenman, Pivarnik&Malina, 2001;Chamari et al, 2004;Montfort-Steiger, Williams & Armstrong, 2005;Metaxas, Koutlianos, Kouidi&Deliggianis, 2005;Castagna, Impellizzeri, Rampinini, D´Ottavio&Manzi, 2008). Our results strengthen the framework of evidence and show youth soccer players as athletes who demonstrate values of relative peak VO2 similar to those find for their peers from other sports.…”

Evaluation of a cycling pre-load time trial protocol in recreationally active humans

“…For these reasons, and added to the fact that participants were previously unfamiliar with the type of test, it would seem prudent to include a trial to familiarise (habituate) such participants with a protocol. Other recent studies have also concluded this, such as Montfort-Steiger et al (2005) who suggest that for the evaluation of the effectiveness of a nutritional intervention in less experienced participants, a habituation trial is essential to optimise between-test variability, as this impacts on sample size estimates. Despite this, in trained and habituated cyclists, it is suggested that a familiarisation trial may not be needed.…”

“…Despite the lack of extensive experience of cycling as an exercise mode and/or the laboratory testing environment, reliability of 3.4% (mean CV for the group using typical error) and 6.3% (CV of individual values) in recreationally active participants compares reasonably well with other studies evaluating similar types of test in trained cyclists. Literature examples include 3-4% in trained cyclists using a cycle ergometer (Jeukendrup et al 1996), 3.7% in adolescent cyclists (Montfort-Steiger et al 2005), and 3.8-4.5% in trained cyclists in a glycogendepleted state (Currell et al 2006). The pre-load exercise intensity used in the present study (65% of peak VO 2 ) is Jeukendrup et al 1996).…”

“…Jeukendrup et al (1996) reported poor reproducibility of prolonged cycle exercise tests to volitional exhaustion (CV 27% over 5 repeated trials), and suggested alternative protocols with a CV of around 3-4%. These protocols were, however, evaluated using trained cyclists, as was the work of Schabort et al (1998), and in trained adolescent cyclists by Montfort-Steiger et al (2005)-participants who have considerable experience of laboratory testing or at least familiarity with how to pace their effort in a timetrial. Often, healthy participants volunteering for physiological studies are recreationally active but not particularly well accustomed to one form of exercise.…”

Sport Nutrition and Youth

“…Although the order of the trials was counterbalanced, the inclusion of a habituation session has been suggested to reduce the coefficient of variation in adolescents completing a cycling time trial (Montfort-Steiger et al 2005). …”