Physical Working Capacity at Pain Intensity Threshold in Females

Sterner, DA, Stout, JR, Antonio, BB, Anderson, AW, Hill, EC, and Fukuda, DH. Physical working capacity at pain intensity threshold in females. J Strength Cond Res 39(5): e628–e633, 2025—This study aimed to establish a new threshold parameter in women called the physical working capacity at pain intensity threshold (PWC PIT ) similar to that in males. The objectives were to (a) assess if the PIT scale can be used to estimate PWC PIT in females and (b) evaluate relationships between PWC PIT and other established thresholds: PWC at maximal oxygen consumption ( ), PWC at heart rate threshold (PWC HRT ), and gas exchange threshold (GET). Eleven female volunteers (age: 21.1 ± 2.7 years, height: 165.3 ± 6.8 cm, body mass: 66.1 ± 13.4 kg, o 2 peak: 27.38 ± 5.2 ml·kg −1 ·min −2 ) participated in the study. Subjects completed a graded exercise test to exhaustion, followed by four 8-minute randomly ordered work bouts on separate days at 70–100% peak power output (56–200 W) to establish their PWC PIT , PWC HRT , and . One-way repeated-measures analysis of variance with Bonferroni post hoc tests and a zero-order correlation matrix were used to analyze these thresholds. No significant differences were found among the estimated power outputs for GET (69 ± 20 W), PWC PIT (80 ± 36 W), PWC HRT (84 ± 24 W), and (88 ± 30 W). Physical working capacity at PIT significantly correlated with PWC HRT ( r = 0.905, p < 0.001) and ( r = 0.947, p < 0.001), but not with GET ( r = 0.539, p = 0.087). The significant correlations between PWC PIT and other established thresholds (PWC HRT and ) in females suggest that PWC PIT may provide valuable insights into endurance performance. Further research examining how PWC PIT aligns with, differs from, or complements existing PWC threshold measures may provide a more comprehensive understanding of the factors governing endurance performance in females.