Greater V˙O2peak is correlated with greater skeletal muscle deoxygenation amplitude and hemoglobin concentration within individual muscles during ramp‐incremental cycle exercise

It is axiomatic that greater aerobic fitness ( V˙ O2peak) derives from enhanced perfusive and diffusive O2 conductances across active muscles. However, it remains unknown how these conductances might be reflected by regional differences in fractional O2 extraction (i.e., deoxy [Hb+Mb] and tissue O2 saturation [StO2]) and diffusive O2 potential (i.e., total[Hb+Mb]) among muscles spatially heterogeneous in blood flow, fiber type, and recruitment (vastus lateralis, VL; rectus femoris, RF). Using quantitative time‐resolved near‐infrared spectroscopy during ramp cycling in 24 young participants ( V˙ O2peak range: ~37.4–66.4 mL kg？1 min？1), we tested the hypotheses that (1) deoxy[Hb+Mb] and total[Hb+Mb] at V˙ O2peak would be positively correlated with V˙ O2peak in both VL and RF muscles; (2) the pattern of deoxygenation (the deoxy[Hb+Mb] slopes) during submaximal exercise would not differ among subjects differing in V˙ O2peak. Peak deoxy [Hb+Mb] and StO2 correlated with V˙ O2peak for both VL (r = 0.44 and ？0.51) and RF (r = 0.49 and ？0.49), whereas for total[Hb+Mb] this was true only for RF (r = 0.45). Baseline deoxy[Hb+Mb] and StO2 correlated with V˙ O2peak only for RF (r = ？0.50 and 0.54). In addition, the deoxy[Hb+Mb] slopes were not affected by aerobic fitness. In conclusion, while the pattern of deoxygenation (the deoxy[Hb+Mb] slopes) did not differ between fitness groups the capacity to deoxygenate [Hb+Mb] (index of maximal fractional O2 extraction) correlated significantly with V˙ O2peak in both RF and VL muscles. However, only in the RF did total[Hb+Mb] (index of diffusive O2 potential) relate to fitness