Comparison between aerobic power parameters at different time-averaging intervals in swimming: An update

Sousa et al. (Open Sports Sci J, 3: 22 – 24, 2010) showed that different time averaging intervals lead to distinct VO2 values in a maximal 200m front crawl effort, evidencing higher VO2 values for breath-by-breath sampling, and differences between this latter data acquisition and all the other less frequent time intervals studied (5, 10, 15 and 20 s). These are interesting outputs in the field of exercise physiology applied to swimming once: (1) VO2 assessment is conducted in a swimming pool with a portable gas analyser which allowed breath-by-breath measurements, and not in a swimming flume with a Douglas bag technique or mixing chamber analyser, as traditionally occurs, and (2) the comparison between different time-averaging intervals used to remove breath-by-breath fluctuations during exercise periods has remained neglected, in sport in general and swimming in particular. Therefore, in the present study, we investigate the influence that different time averaging intervals have in aerobic power related parameters (VO2peak and VO2max). Ten subjects performed 200m front crawl effort at supra-maximal intensities (all-out test) and other ten subjects performed 200m front crawl effort at maximal aerobic intensities (100% of VO2max).The intensity at which the 200m front crawl was performed (supra-maximal and maximal intensities) had a significant effect on VO2peak and VO2max values obtained for each averaging intervals studied.