Aerobic and Anaerobic threshold in different kind of sports

Purpose: The Anaerobic Threshold (AT) and VO2 max are currently used to evaluate the athlete’s performance while the Aerobic Threshold (AerT). (for blood lactate of 2 mmol/litre). has been recently used. The aim of this study it is to compare VO2 max, AT and AerT of different sports. Methods: A group of 41 athletes (16 soccer. 10 basket and 15cyclists) and 9 healthy subjects were submitted to a Cardio Pulmonary Test (CPT). The AerT. AT (in three different methods: V-slope, Ventilatory Equivalents, Respiratory Exchange Ratio) and VO2max were evaluated. The statistical analysis was performed with T student test (P< 0.05 significant). Results: The AT values. were in athletes statistically different vs controls. On the contrary the AerT values were higher only in the cyclist group. Conclusions: The results confirm the consistency of the methods to calculate the AT. Only in cyclist the AerT measure seems to give an additional information in evaluating the cardiovascular performance. The VO2max and AT remain the main parameters in defining the athletes performance. Therefore we cannot exclude any further utility of the AerT in normal subject but regularly trained.