Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Sep 1;53(9):1911-1921.
doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000002673.

W' Recovery Kinetics after Exhaustion: A Two-Phase Exponential Process Influenced by Aerobic Fitness

Kevin Caen, Gil Bourgois  1 , Charles Dauwe  2 , Laura Blancquaert  1 , Kobe Vermeire  1 , Eline Lievens  1 , J O VAN Dorpe  3 , Wim Derave  1 , Jan G Bourgois, Lauren Pringels  1 , Jan Boone
Affiliations

W' Recovery Kinetics after Exhaustion: A Two-Phase Exponential Process Influenced by Aerobic Fitness

Kevin Caen et al. Med Sci Sports Exerc. .

Abstract

Purpose: The aims of this study were 1) to model the temporal profile of W' recovery after exhaustion, 2) to estimate the contribution of changing V˙O2 kinetics to this recovery, and 3) to examine associations with aerobic fitness and muscle fiber type (MFT) distribution.

Methods: Twenty-one men (age = 25 ± 2 yr, V˙O2peak = 54.4 ± 5.3 mL·min-1·kg-1) performed several constant load tests to determine critical power and W' followed by eight trials to quantify W' recovery. Each test consisted of two identical exhaustive work bouts (WB1 and WB2), separated by a variable recovery interval of 30, 60, 120, 180, 240, 300, 600, or 900 s. Gas exchange was measured and muscle biopsies were collected to determine MFT distribution. W' recovery was quantified as observed W' recovery (W'OBS), model-predicted W' recovery (W'BAL), and W' recovery corrected for changing V˙O2 kinetics (W'ADJ). W'OBS and W'ADJ were modeled using mono- and biexponential fitting. Root-mean-square error (RMSE) and Akaike information criterion (∆AICC) were used to evaluate the models' accuracy.

Results: The W'BAL model (τ = 524 ± 41 s) was associated with an RMSE of 18.6% in fitting W'OBS and underestimated W' recovery for all durations below 5 min (P < 0.002). Monoexponential modeling of W'OBS resulted in τ = 104 s with RMSE = 6.4%. Biexponential modeling of W'OBS resulted in τ1 = 11 s and τ2 = 256 s with RMSE = 1.7%. W'ADJ was 11% ± 1.5% lower than W'OBS (P < 0.001). ∆AICC scores favored the biexponential model for W'OBS, but not for W'ADJ. V˙O2peak (P = 0.009) but not MFT distribution (P = 0.303) was associated with W'OBS.

Conclusion: We showed that W' recovery from exhaustion follows a two-phase exponential time course that is dependent on aerobic fitness. The appearance of a fast initial recovery phase was attributed to an enhanced aerobic energy provision resulting from changes in V˙O2 kinetics.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Jones AM, Vanhatalo A. The ‘critical power’ concept: applications to sports performance with a focus on intermittent high-intensity exercise. Sports Med . 2017;47(S1):65–78.
    1. Skiba PF, Chidnok W, Vanhatalo A, Jones AM. Modeling the expenditure and reconstitution of work capacity above critical power. Med Sci Sports Exerc . 2012;44(8):1526–32.
    1. Skiba PF, Clarke D, Vanhatalo A, Jones AM. Validation of a novel intermittent W ′ model for cycling using field data. Int J Sports Physiol Perform . 2014;9(6):900–4.
    1. Skiba PF, Jackman S, Clarke D, Vanhatalo A, Jones AM. Effect of work and recovery durations on W ′ reconstitution during intermittent exercise. Med Sci Sports Exerc . 2014;46(7):1433–40.
    1. Caen K, Bourgois JG, Bourgois G, Van Der Stede T, Vermeire K, Boone J. The reconstitution of W ′ depends on both work and recovery characteristics. Med Sci Sports Exerc . 2019;51(8):1745–51.

Publication types