Noninvasive Determination of Anaerobic Threshold Based on the Heart Rate Deflection Point in Water Cycling

This study compared heart rate (HR), oxygen uptake (V[Combining Dot Above]O2), percentage of maximal HR (%HRmax), percentage of maximal V[Combining Dot Above]O2, and cadence (Cad) related to the anaerobic threshold (AT) during a water cycling maximal test between heart rate deflection point (HRDP) and ventilatory (VT) methods. In addition, the correlations between both methods were assessed for all variables. The test was performed by 27 men in a cycle ergometer in an aquatic environment. The protocol started at a Cad of 100 b·min-1 for 3 minutes with subsequent increments of 15 b·min-1 every 2 minutes until exhaustion. A paired two-tailed Student's t-test was used to compare the variables …