Cardiorespiratory responses of trained boys to treadmill and arm ergometry: Effect of training specificity

The purpose of this study was to examine the maximal cardiorespiratory responses of trained adolescent male swimmers (SWM, N = 18), soccer players (SOC, N = 18), and moderately active reference subjects (CONI N = 16) to treadmill running (TRD) and arm ergometry (ARM). Mean values (+/- SD) for skeletal age were similar among the three groups (12.5 +/- 1.9, 12.7 +/- 1.1, and 12.5 +/- 1.6 years, for the SWM, SOC, and CON, respectively). Allometric scaling procedures, relating VO2 max and body mass, were used and mass exponents of .80 and .74 were identified for TRD and ARM data, respectively. During TRD testing SOC attained significantly higher VO2 max values when expressed in ml.kg(-1).min(-1), or ml.kg(-0.80).min(-1) than the other two groups. However, during ARM testing, the SWM achieved significantly higher VO2, peak Values (ml.kg(-0.74).min(-1) and scaled to arm-CSA) than SOC. The ratio of ARM-VAT to TRD-VAT was significantly higher in SWM (50.1 +/- 9%) compared to SOC (41.2 +/- 5%), or CON (41.9 +/- 6%).