Swimming Critical Velocity Physiological Meaning Is Affected By Testing Distances - Swimming Critical Velocity Physiological Meaning Is Affected By Testing Distances - Open Access Pub

DOI10.14302/issn.2578-8590.ipj-18-2556 Swimming is a human activity that relies heavily on individual physiological capabilities. In fact, the swimming general performance equation, proposed several years ago by di Prampero 1, highlighted the energy expenditure, the propulsive efficiency and the hydrodynamic drag as its main determinants. Therefore, coaches and exercise physiologists have been proposing a number of testing protocols aiming to diagnose the swimmers physiological training status. However, most of these protocols are invasive, time consuming and costly (e.g. the oxygen uptake assessment and the blood lactate concentrations determination). In addition, some of these tests have some constraints, as the use of a cumbersome breathing valve for respiratory data collection (cf. 2) and the selection of an averaged value of blood lactate concentrations as an non individualized index of endurance performance 3, 4. These (and other) limitations leaded to the emergence of a number of functional tests, used frequently in swimming daily practices, some of them based on continuous exertions, as the 30 min, 2000 m and maximal lactate steady state tests 5, 6. Nevertheless, these tests are hard to control and not appellative 7, leading frequently to false results. A nice alternative to those monotonous evaluations is the critical velocity test that was adapted for swimming by Wakayoshi et al. 8 based on the critical power concept 9. Critical velocity is accepted as the theoretic maximal swimming speed that can be maintained without exhaustion for a long period of time, being c onceptually related with the swimming intensity at the anaerobic threshold and, consequently, to the aerobic capacity training 9, 10. Critical velocity is expressed as the slope of a straight line established between, at least, two swimming distances and their corresponding exercise durations, i.e., the slope of the regression line determined between the test distances and the time needed to cover them at maximum intensity. This is an easy to accomplish test that allows evaluating the maximal velocity of a swimmer in a regime of physiological aerobic balance 11, with its final value being considered as a predictive variable of aerobic performance and an optimum indicator to prescribe aerobic training 12. However, to save time during training control routines (as coaches are reluctant to loose time with testing sessions in or in-between swimming practices), critical velocity is frequently assessed with short bouts. This does not respect the criterion of using a test distance of