The effects of priming exercise on the VO2 slow component and the time-course of muscle fatigue during very-heavy intensity exercise in humans.

We hypothesized that prior exercise would attenuate the muscle fatigue accompanied by the VO2SC behavior during a subsequent very heavy (VH) intensity cycling exercise. Thirteen healthy male subjects performed tests to determine the critical power (CP) and W′ and six square-wave bouts until 3 or 8 min, each at a work rate set to deplete 70 % W′ in 8 min, with an maximal isokinetic effort (MIE) before and after the conditions without (VHCON) and with prior exercise (VHEXP), to measure the cycling peak torque decrement. The VO2SC magnitude at 3 min (VHCON = 0.280 ± 0.234, VHEXP = 0.116 ± 0.109 L.min-1; p=0.04) and the VO2SC trajectory were significantly lower for VHEXP (VHCON = 0.108 ± 0.042, VHEXP = 0.063 ± 0.031 L.min-2; pThe accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author