Wa. Birkett et Df. Edwards, THE USE OF ONE-ARM CRANK ERGOMETRY IN THE PREDICTION OF UPPER-BODY AEROBIC CAPACITY, Clinical rehabilitation, 12(4), 1998, pp. 319-327
Objective: To determine whether a submaximal one-arm cranking test cou
ld be used to predict an individual's upper body aerobic capacity. Thi
s issue has potential importance for the fitness assessment of individ
uals with neurological disease or damage who have hemiplegia. Methods:
Nine healthy male volunteers (33 +/- 2.4 years) and nine female volun
teers (27 +/- 1.9 years) performed a two-arm maximal, two-arm submaxim
al lest and a one-arm submaximal arm crank ergometry test. Heart rate
(HR) was monitored via a three-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) and expire
d air was analysed every 30 seconds throughout. Prediction of peak oxy
gen consumption (VO2peak) was calculated by linear extrapolation to an
age-adjusted HRpeak. Results: Heart rate and VO2 were highly correlat
ed in each test, and there were no significant differences between the
VO2peak values obtained from maximal cranking and VO2peak predicted f
rom one- and two-arm submaximal tests for males and females. As expect
ed, males were found to have significantly (p<0.001) higher actual and
predicted VO2peak values, indicating that separate regression equatio
ns should be used for males and females. Conclusions: Heart rate value
s obtained during one-arm submaximal cranking have the potential to pr
edict arm cranking VO2peak, and therefore provide an estimation of an
individual's aerobic capacity, in addition to those obtained from the
more traditional two-arm tests.