Physiological and perceptual responses to sprint interval exercise using arm versus leg cycling ergometry

Abstract

Increases in power output and maximal oxygen consumption (V˙O2max) occur in response to sprint interval exercise (SIE), but common use of “all-out” intensities presents a barrier for many adults. Furthermore, lower-body SIE is not feasible for all adults. We compared physiological and perceptual responses to supramaximal, but “non-all-out” SIE between leg and arm cycling exercise. Twenty-four active adults (mean ​± ​SD age: [25 ​± ​7] y; cycling V˙O2max: [39 ​± ​7] mL·kg⁻¹·min⁻¹) performed incremental exercise using leg (LCE) and arm cycle ergometry (ACE) to determine V˙O2max and maximal work capacity (Wmax). Subsequently, they performed four 20 ​s bouts of SIE at 130% Wmax on the LCE or ACE at cadence ​= ​120-130 ​rev/min, with 2 ​min recovery between intervals. Gas exchange data, heart rate (HR), blood lactate concentration (BLa), rating of perceived exertion (RPE), and affective valence were acquired. Data showed significantly lower (p ​< ​0.001) absolute mean ([1.24 ​± ​0.31] L·min⁻¹ vs. [1.59 ​± ​0.34] L·min⁻¹; d ​= ​1.08) and peak V˙O2 ([1.79 ​± ​0.48] L·min⁻¹ vs. [2.10 ​± ​0.44] L·min⁻¹; d ​= ​0.70) with ACE versus LCE. However, ACE elicited significantly higher (p ​< ​0.001) relative mean ([62% ​± ​9%] V˙O2max vs. [57% ​± ​7%] V˙O2max, d ​= ​0.63) and peak V˙O2 ([88% ​± ​10%] V˙O2max vs. [75% ​± ​10%] V˙O2max, d ​= ​1.33). Post-exercise BLa was significantly higher ([7.0 ​± ​1.7] mM vs. [5.7 ​± ​1.5] mM, p ​= ​0.024, d ​= ​0.83) for LCE versus ACE. There was no significant effect of modality on RPE or affective valence (p ​> ​0.42), and lowest affective valence recorded (2.0 ​± ​1.8) was considered “good to fairly good”. Data show that non “all-out” ACE elicits lower absolute but higher relative HR and V˙O2 compared to LCE. Less aversive perceptual responses could make this non-all-out modality feasible for inactive adults.

Keywords

High intensity interval training / Upper body exercise / Peak power output / Oxygen uptake / Blood lactate concentration

Ethical approval

Participants provided written informed consent, and study experimental procedures were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board at CSU—San Marcos (Protocol 1876593-1). The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Submission statement

All Authors have read and agree to this manuscript content. In addition, while this manuscript is being reviewed by this Journal, the manuscript will not be submitted elsewhere for review and publication.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Todd A. Astorino: Writing - review & editing, Writing - original draft, Validation, Supervision, Software, Resources, Project administration, Methodology, Investigation, Funding acquisition, Formal analysis, Data curation, Conceptualization. Shealin Pierce: Writing - review & editing, Writing - original draft, Supervision, Investigation, Formal analysis, Data curation. Madisen B. Piva: Writing - review & editing, Writing - original draft, Supervision, Formal analysis, Data curation. Richard S. Metcalfe: Writing - review & editing, Writing - original draft, Conceptualization. Niels B.J. Vollaard: Writing - review & editing, Writing - original draft, Methodology, Conceptualization.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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