Effects of prior heavy exercise on phase II pulmonary oxygen uptake kinetics during heavy exercise

Abstract

We tested the hypothesis that heavy-exercise phase II oxygen uptake (V˙o ₂) kinetics could be speeded by prior heavy exercise. Ten subjects performed four protocols involving 6-min exercise bouts on a cycle ergometer separated by 6 min of recovery: 1) moderate followed by moderate exercise; 2) moderate followed by heavy exercise; 3) heavy followed by moderate exercise; and 4) heavy followed by heavy exercise. The V˙o ₂ responses were modeled using two (moderate exercise) or three (heavy exercise) independent exponential terms. Neither moderate- nor heavy-intensity exercise had an effect on the V˙o ₂ kinetic response to subsequent moderate exercise. Although heavy-intensity exercise significantly reduced the mean response time in the second heavy exercise bout (from 65.2 ± 4.1 to 47.0 ± 3.1 s; P < 0.05), it had no significant effect on either the amplitude or the time constant (from 23.9 ± 1.9 to 25.3 ± 2.9 s) of theV˙o ₂ response in phase II. Instead, this “speeding” was due to a significant reduction in the amplitude of the V˙o ₂ slow component. These results suggest phase II V˙o ₂ kinetics are not speeded by prior heavy exercise.