Estimating peak oxygen uptake based on postexercise measurements in swimming.

To assess the validity of postexercise measurements in estimating peak oxygen uptake ( V̇O2peak) in swimming, we compared oxygen uptake ( V̇O2) measurements during supramaximal exercise with various commonly adopted methods, including a recently developed heart rate - V̇O2 modelling procedure. Thirty-one elite swimmers performed a 200-m maximal swim where V̇O2 was measured breath-by-breath using a portable gas analyzer connected to a respiratory snorkel, 1 min before, during, and 3 min postexercise. V̇O2peak(-20-0) was the average of the last 20 s of effort. The following postexercise measures were compared: ( i) first 20-s average ( V̇O2peak(0-20)); ( ii) linear backward extrapolation (BE) of the first 20 s (BE(20)), 30 s, and 3 × 20-, 4 × 20-, and 3 or 4 × 20-s averages; ( iii) semilogarithmic BE at 20 s (LOG(20)) and at the other same time intervals as in linear BE; and ( iv) predicted V̇O2peak using mathematical modelling ( p V̇O2(0-20)]. Repeated-measures ANOVA and post-hoc Bonferroni tests compared V̇O2peak (criterion) and each estimated value. Pearson's coefficient of determination ( r2) was used to assess correlation. Exercise V̇O2peak(-20-0) (mean ± SD 3531 ± 738 mL·min−1) was not different ( p > 0.30) from p V̇O2(0-20) (3571 ± 735 mL·min−1), BE(20) (3617 ± 708 mL·min−1), or LOG(20) (3627 ± 746 mL·min−1). p V̇O2(0-20) was very strongly correlated with exercise V̇O2peak ( r2 = 0.962; p < 0.001), and showed a low standard error of the estimate (146 mL·min−1, 4.1%) and the lowest mean difference (40 mL·min−1; 1.1%). We confirm that the new modelling procedure based on postexercise V̇O2 and heart rate measurements is a valid and accurate procedure for estimating V̇O2peak in swimmers and avoids the estimation bias produced by other methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]