THE BRUCE TREADMILL PROTOCOL - DOES WALKING OR RUNNING DURING THE 4THSTAGE ALTER OXYGEN-CONSUMPTION VALUES

Objective. To investigate heart rate (HR) and relative oxygen consumpt ion ((V) over dot O-2) measures during two modes (walking or running s tage four) of the Bruce treadmill protocol. Participants. Male volunte ers (n=27), ranging in age from 25 to 56 years (M=39.1+/-10.7 yrs), Ex perimental design. S's performed to volitional fatigue on the two rand omly assigned treadmill tests. Measures. HR and (V) over dot O-2 were taken each minute and at point of exhaustion. Results. Dependent ''t'' -tests revealed a significant (p less than or equal to 0.05) differenc e between the protocols at 11 minutes (running= 46,7+/-3,9 > walking=4 4.6+/-3.7 ml[kg.min(-1)]) and at 12 minutes (running=49,3+/-4,1 > walk ing=47.6+/-3.5 ml[kg min(-1)]) on the (V) over dot O-2 values. A signi ficant differences was noted on HR at 11 minutes (running=158.1+/-13.5 > walking=156.0+/-13.0 bpm) and at 12 minutes (running=160.4+/-11.0 > walking=157.8+/-11.4 bpm) between the protocols, The two-way ANOVA te chnique revealed no significant differences or interactions on (V) ove r dot O-2 or HR between younger (<45 yrs) and older (greater than or e qual to 45 yrs) subjects during either protocol. A one-way ANCOVA indi cated no significant differences between taller and shorter subjects o n (V) over dot O-2 during the fourth stage of the Bruce protocol, The correlations, between the two protocols, for HR were strong but were w eaker and inconsistent for (V) over dot O-2, The repeated measures ANO VA indicated significant within subject variability between test admin istrations.Conclusions. When testing endurance trained males, modality , age and height are not factors in differences of (V) over dot O-2 va lues during the 4th stage of the Bruce treadmill test but learning eff ect could be.