Oxygen Uptake Kinetics Following Six Weeks of Interval and Continuous Endurance Exercise Training − An explorative pilot study

Purpose The aim of the study was to compare the responses of pulmonary (V’O2pulm) and muscle (V’O2musc) oxygen uptake kinetics before (PRE) and after (POST) six weeks of endurance exercise training. Methods Nine untrained individuals performed pseudo-random binary sequences work rate changes between 30 W and 80 W at PRE and POST training intervention. Heart rate (HR) and V’O2pulm were measured beat-to-beat and breath-by-breath, respectively. V’O2musc was estimated applying the approach of Hoffmann et al. (Eur J Appl Physiol 113: 1745–1754, 2013). Results Maximal oxygen uptake showed significant increases from PRE (3.2 ± 0.3 L min−1) to POST (3.7 ± 0.2 L min−1; p < 0.05). For HR, V’O2pulm and V’O2musc kinetics no significant changes from PRE to POST training intervention were observed (p > 0.05). Conclusions Discrepancies in the adaptations of the involved exercise induced physiological systems seem to be responsible for the observed significant alterations in maximal V’O2 after six weeks of the training intervention in contrast to no changes in the kinetics responses.