Abstract

Introduction: The measurement of capillary blood to assess the lactate inflection point is used for health-fitness application and to predict sports performance. However, it is unknown if capillary blood sampling impacts physiological, psychological or perceptual responses during exercise testing.

Purpose: To compare the effect of capillary blood sampling on physiological, psychological, and perceptual during a load incremented cycle protocol.

Methods: A multiple observation, within subject, cross-sectional design was employed. Twenty males (20.4±2.76 years), and twenty females (22.3±3.31 years) performed two load incremented cycle ergo meter tests (Trial A and Trial B) to obtain VO2 peak (lmin-1), Ventilation (Ve) (lmin-1), VCO2 (lmin-1). VO2 (lmin-1), and HR (bmin-1) were recorded each minute. The Vpt was determined as the %VO2peak at which Ve: VO2 increased without an accompanying increase in Ve: VCO2. Trial A included capillary blood lactate (BLa) measures taken during the last minute of each stage. Trial B used an identical protocol without BLa measures. The order of administration of Trial A and Trial B were counter-balanced. The psychological/perceptual dependent variables measured during the last 30 seconds of each stage were:

1) Affect Valence (AV)