european college of sport science

Thursday, June 25th, 2009
original LMT (Tegtbur et al., 1993) was develop to assess the maximal exercise intensity at which an equilibrium exists between the production
and removal of lactate. Although not universally accepted, the LMT is an attractive test believed capable to estimate, in a single
session, the individual AT. Nevertheless, contradictory results have arisen from research (Bacon and Kern, 1999; Jones and Doust, 1998).
The aim of this study was to assess the validity of the LMT for the estimation of the MLSS.
Methods: Twenty male runners (mean[SD]: age 29.8[6.3] yr, height 1.75[0.05] m, weight 67.4[6.6] kg, VO2max 58.2[5.8] ml/kg/min) underwent
a battery of running field tests within 4 weeks: Université de Montréal Track Test for the determination of maximal aerobic speed
(MAS), LMT, and several constant-speed runs of 30-min duration each performed on different days for the precise determination (+/-0.25
km/h) of the MLSS velocity (MLSSv). Four different methods (visual inspection, 2nd order polynomial fit, 3rd order polynomial fit and cubicspline
fit) used to individually determine the lactate minimum speed (Vmin) were compared.
Results: MLSSv and Vmin were highly correlated (r=0.80-0.87 for the three mathematical methods employed) although mean Vmin
(quadratic fit method) was significantly lower (p