Pedalada unilateral: influência da aplicação de contrapesos no consumo de oxigênio, frequência cardíaca e percepção do esforço

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of applying counterweight on VO2, HR and RPE during single-leg cycling. The study included 11 cyclists (31 ± 8 years, 176 ± 8 cm, 70.6 ± 10.8 kg, BMI 22.7 ± 2.1 and 64 ± 9ml.kg-1.min-1). The experimental design was divided into 7 different days. On the first day, the volunteers were submitted to anthropometric evaluation, a double-leg test of cadences in powers of 60 and 100 W and cadences of 60, 75 and 90 rpm followed by a double-leg incremental test. From the second to the seventh day, were performed single-leg tests with dominant leg using the counterweight 2.5 kg or 5kg or noncounterweight and in the 60 W and 100 W powers. The VO2, HR and RPE values were measured in all tests. The data were presented by mean ± standard deviation. We used, ANOVA for repeated measures and subsequently the Bland-Altman plot to assess the agreement between single-leg and double-leg cycling. The PU60 was not different from PB60 from the point of view of oxygen uptake. At 100 W workload, both the counterweights 2.5 Kg and 5,0 Kg matched the oxygen uptake, enabling single-leg cycling to be performed with the same metabolic cost of double-leg cycling. However, at 100 W workload, the counterweight apparatus was not effective to make similar single-leg and double-leg cycling based on HR and RPE comparisons.