title: A New Model for Estimating Peak Oxygen Uptake Based on Postexercise Measurements in Swimming.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Assessing cardiopulmonary function during swimming is a complex and cumbersome procedure. Backward extrapolation is often used to predict peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak) during unimpeded swimming, but error can derive from a delay at the onset of VO2 recovery. The authors assessed the validity of a mathematical model based on heart rate (HR) and postexercise VO2 kinetics for the estimation of VO2peak during exercise.
  
  
  METHODS
  34 elite swimmers performed a maximal front-crawl 200-m swim. VO2 was measured breath by breath and HR from beat-to-beat intervals. Data were time-aligned and 1-s-interpolated. Exercise VO2peak was the average of the last 20 s of exercise. Postexercise V˙O2 was the first 20-s average during the immediate recovery. Predicted VO2 values (pVO2) were computed using the equation: pVO2(t) = VO2(t) HRend-exercise/HR(t). Average values were calculated for different time intervals and compared with measured exercise VO2peak.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Postexercise VO2 (0-20 s) underestimated VO2peak by 3.3% (95% CI = 9.8% underestimation to 3.2% overestimation, mean difference = -116 mL/min, SEE = 4.2%, P = .001). The best VO2peak estimates were offered by pVO2peak from 0 to 20 s (r2 = .96, mean difference = 17 mL/min, SEE = 3.8%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The high correlation (r2 = .86-.96) and agreement between exercise and predicted VO2 support the validity of the model, which provides accurate VO2peak estimations after a single maximal swim while avoiding the error of backward extrapolation and allowing the subject to swim completely unimpeded.
authors.affiliation: INEFC-Barcelona Sport Sciences Research Group, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Diego
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chaverri
authors.forename: Thorsten
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schuller
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Iglesias
authors.forename: Uwe
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Hoffmann
authors.forename: Ferran A
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015233:Models, Statistical; D010101:Oxygen Consumption; D011659:Pulmonary Gas Exchange; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013550:Swimming / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult