Loughborough University
Browse

Physiological responses during simulated 16 km recumbent handcycling time trial and determinants of performance in trained handcyclists

Download (576.87 kB)
journal contribution
posted on 2020-05-01, 10:59 authored by Ben Stone, Barry Mason, Ben StephensonBen Stephenson, Vicky Goosey-TolfreyVicky Goosey-Tolfrey

Purpose: To characterise the physiological profiles of trained handcyclists, during recumbent handcycling, to describe the physiological responses during a 16 km time trial (TT) and to identify the determinants of this TT performance.

Methods: Eleven male handcyclists performed a sub-maximal and maximal incremental exercise test in their recumbent handbike, attached to a Cyclus II ergometer. A physiological profile, including peak aerobic power output (POPeak), peak rate of oxygen uptake (V̇O2Peak), aerobic lactate threshold (AeLT) and PO at 4 mmol∙L-1 (PO4), were determined. Participants also completed a 16 km simulated TT using the same experimental set-up. Determinants of TT performance were identified using stepwise multiple linear regression analysis.

Results: Mean values of POPeak = 252 ± 9 W, V̇O2Peak = 3.30 ± 0.36 L·min-1 (47.0 ± 6.8 mL·kg-1·min-1), AeLT = 87 ± 13 W and PO4 = 154 ± 14 W were recorded. The TT was completed in 29:21 ± 0:59 min:s at an intensity equivalent to 69 ± 4% POPeak and 87 ± 5% V̇O2Peak. POPeak (r = -0.77, P=0.006), PO4 (r = -0.77, P=0.006) and AeLT (r = -0.68, P=0.022) were significantly correlated with TT performance. PO4 and POPeak were identified as the best predictors of TT performance (r = 0.89, P<0.001).

Conclusion: POPeak, PO4 and AeLT are important physiological TT performance determinants in trained handcyclists, differentiating between superior and inferior performance whereas V̇O2peak was not. The TT took place at an intensity corresponding to 69% POPeak and 87% V̇O2peak.

Funding

Wheelchair Racing Set up for Optimal Performance : 14220192

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council 14 (grant no. EP/M507489/1)

History

School

  • Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences

Published in

European Journal of Applied Physiology

Volume

120

Pages

1621 - 1628

Publisher

Springer Verlag

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Rights holder

© The Authors

Publisher statement

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Acceptance date

2020-04-29

Publication date

2020-05-20

Copyright date

2020

ISSN

1439-6319

eISSN

1439-6327

Language

  • en

Depositor

Prof Vicky Tolfrey Deposit date: 29 April 2020

Usage metrics

    Loughborough Publications

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Licence

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC