Hemodynamic and metabolic responses to self-paced and ramp-graded exercise testing protocols

Recent examinations have shown lower maximal oxygen consumption during traditional ramp (RAMP) compared with self-paced (SPV) graded exercise testing (GXT) attributed to differences in cardiac output. The current study examined the differences in hemodynamic and metabolic responses between RAMP and SPV during treadmill exercise. Sixteen recreationally trained men (aged23.7 ± 3.0 years) completed 2 separate treadmill GXT protocols. SPV consisted of five 2-min stages (10 min total) of increasing speed clamped by the Borg RPE6-20 scale. RAMP increased speed by 0.16 km/h every 15 s until volitional exhaustion. All testing was performed at 3% incline. Oxygen consumption was measured via indirect calorimetry; hemodynamic function was measured via thoracic impedance and blood lactate (BLa − ) was measured via portable lactate analyzer. Differences between SPV and RAMP protocols were analyzed as group means by using paired-samples t tests (R Core Team 2017). Maximal values for SPV and RAMP were similar (p > 0.05) for oxygen uptake (47.1 ± 3.4 vs. 47.4 ± 3.4 mL·kg −1 ·min −1 ), heart rate (198 ± 5 vs. 200 ± 6 beats·min −1 ), ventilation (158.8 ± 20.7 vs. 159.3 ± 19.0 L·min −1 ), cardiac output (26.9 ± 5.5 vs. 27.9 ± 4.2 L·min −1 ), stroke volume (SV) (145.9 ± 29.2 vs. 149.8 ± 25.3 mL·beat −1 ), arteriovenous oxygen difference (18.5 ± 3.1 vs. 19.7 ± 3.1 mL·dL −1 ), ventilatory threshold (VT) (78.2 ± 7.2 vs. 79.0% ± 7.6%), and peak BLa − (11.7 ± 2.3 vs. 11.5 ± 2.4 mmol·L −1 ), respectively. In conclusion, SPV elicits similar maximal hemodynamic responses in comparison to RAMP; however, SV kinetics exhibited unique characteristics based on protocol. These results support SPV as a feasible GXT protocol to identify useful fitness parameters (maximal oxygen uptake, oxygen uptake kinetics, and VT).