Incremental exercise

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Incremental exercise is physical exercise that increases in intensity over time. [1]

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An incremental exercise test (IET) is a physical fitness test that varies by different variables. These include the initial starting rate, the consecutive work rates, increments and the duration of each increment. These variables can be modified extensively to suit the purpose of the training program or the individual. [2] Incremental exercise is a widely accepted method of sourcing health-related information.

Incremental exercise is often used during fitness tests such as the YMCA sub-maximal test, YoYo test and the commonly known beep test. Multiple methods of incremental exercise tests have also proved useful in identifying and monitoring individuals' or teams' adaptation to training. [2] Incremental exercise has proved to be useful for determining the simplest of factors, such as an individual's adaptation to a training program or physical fitness level, or some of the most complex factors. The exercise method is utilised in health studies to determine various health-related propositions and results. These include determining the reproducibility of the lower limbs activity level and, for clinical purposes, determining patient's anaerobic exercise responses and difficulties of daily living. [3] [4]

In a medical setting, three incremental exercise tests are commonly used: cardiac stress testing, cardiopulmonary exercise test, and an exercise test to detect exercise-induced asthma. [4]

Physiological effects

When people are involved in incremental exercise, at a specific intensity level of 70% and 75% VO2 max, they are performing at a greater rate than what they would be during a 30-minute submaximal constant load test. The intensity levels differ between incremental and submaximal constant exercise, and the benefits are not identical. The results suggest the physiological effects of incremental exercise can be more predominant than that of a submaximal constant load. [5]

Contributions of the energy systems

One study found that the aerobic systems are predominant throughout an incremental exercise test (IET), accounting for about 86%-95% of energy systems at work. Glycolytic systems only accounted for 5%-14%, which can be concluded as a non-dominant energy system used during an IET. [6]

Ventilation threshold

During incremental exercise the behaviour of the body's ventilation system increases. Incremental exercise is frequently prescribed to the elderly and elite athletes, specifically the first ventilation threshold (VT1) for the elderly and the second ventilation threshold (VT2) for elite athletes. [7]

VT is the point of transition between predominantly aerobic energy production to anaerobic energy production. The thresholds reflect the heart rates so as it makes the difficulty of the exercise sensible to participants. [8]

Methods and training plans

There are various methods of incremental exercise that determine and improve physical fitness sequentially. Those of which include fitness tests such as the YMCA sub-maximal test, YoYo test, Leger test, and Beep test.

Incremental exercise is also a prominent method utilised in determining results of exercise intensity. A type of incremental exercise test that assists in determining the intensity of exercise includes the talk test (TT). The talk test is a sub-maximal, incremental exercise test which allows individuals to recognise their exercise training intensity. [9] The self-administered test allows individuals the ability to determine if they are exercising at the appropriate heart rate and intensity level based on their ability to speak comfortably whilst exercising. The method of measuring exercise intensity is also a good indication of when individuals are putting too much stress on the body and need to reduce intensity level. [10] This method of incremental exercise suggests the appropriate intensity is achieved if an individual can have light conversation while exercising. If the individual's speech begins to break or it becomes difficult to continue conversation, it is an indication the individual is overworking and needs to decrease the intensity level. [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Exercise</span> Physical activity that improves health

Exercise is physical activity that enhances or maintains fitness and overall health. It is performed for various reasons, including weight loss or maintenance, to aid growth and improve strength, develop muscles and the cardiovascular system, hone athletic skills, improve health, or simply for enjoyment. Many individuals choose to exercise outdoors where they can congregate in groups, socialize, and improve well-being as well as mental health.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heart rate</span> Speed of the heartbeat, measured in beats per minute

Heart rate is the frequency of the heartbeat measured by the number of contractions of the heart per minute. The heart rate varies according to the body's physical needs, including the need to absorb oxygen and excrete carbon dioxide. It is also modulated by numerous factors, including genetics, physical fitness, stress or psychological status, diet, drugs, hormonal status, environment, and disease/illness, as well as the interaction between these factors. It is usually equal or close to the pulse rate measured at any peripheral point.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Exercise physiology</span>

Exercise physiology is the physiology of physical exercise. It is one of the allied health professions, and involves the study of the acute responses and chronic adaptations to exercise. Exercise physiologists are the highest qualified exercise professionals and utilise education, lifestyle intervention and specific forms of exercise to rehabilitate and manage acute and chronic injuries and conditions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Physical fitness</span> State of health and well-being

Physical fitness is a state of health and well-being and, more specifically, the ability to perform aspects of sports, occupations, and daily activities. Physical fitness is generally achieved through proper nutrition, moderate-vigorous physical exercise, and sufficient rest along with a formal recovery plan.

Basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the rate of energy expenditure per unit time by endothermic animals at rest. It is reported in energy units per unit time ranging from watt (joule/second) to ml O2/min or joule per hour per kg body mass J/(h·kg). Proper measurement requires a strict set of criteria to be met. These criteria include being in a physically and psychologically undisturbed state and being in a thermally neutral environment while in the post-absorptive state (i.e., not actively digesting food). In bradymetabolic animals, such as fish and reptiles, the equivalent term standard metabolic rate (SMR) applies. It follows the same criteria as BMR, but requires the documentation of the temperature at which the metabolic rate was measured. This makes BMR a variant of standard metabolic rate measurement that excludes the temperature data, a practice that has led to problems in defining "standard" rates of metabolism for many mammals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anaerobic exercise</span> Physical exercise intense enough to cause lactate formation

Anaerobic exercise is a type of exercise that breaks down glucose in the body without using oxygen; anaerobic means "without oxygen". In practical terms, this means that anaerobic exercise is more intense, but shorter in duration than aerobic exercise.

V̇O2 max (also maximal oxygen consumption, maximal oxygen uptake or maximal aerobic capacity) is the maximum rate of oxygen consumption attainable during physical exertion. The name is derived from three abbreviations: "V̇" for volume (the dot over the V indicates "per unit of time" in Newton's notation), "O2" for oxygen, and "max" for maximum and usually normalized per kilogram of body mass. A similar measure is V̇O2 peak (peak oxygen consumption), which is the measurable value from a session of physical exercise, be it incremental or otherwise. It could match or underestimate the actual V̇O2 max. Confusion between the values in older and popular fitness literature is common. The capacity of the lung to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide is constrained by the rate of blood oxygen transport to active tissue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Exercise intensity</span>

Exercise intensity refers to how much energy is expended when exercising. Perceived intensity varies with each person. It has been found that intensity has an effect on what fuel the body uses and what kind of adaptations the body makes after exercise. Intensity is the amount of physical power that the body uses when performing an activity. For example, exercise intensity defines how hard the body has to work to walk a mile in 20 minutes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">High-intensity interval training</span> Exercise strategy

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is a training protocol alternating short periods of intense or explosive anaerobic exercise with brief recovery periods until the point of exhaustion. HIIT involves exercises performed in repeated quick bursts at maximum or near maximal effort with periods of rest or low activity between bouts. The very high level of intensity, the interval duration, and number of bouts distinguish it from aerobic (cardiovascular) activity, because the body significantly recruits anaerobic energy systems. The method thereby relies on "the anaerobic energy releasing system almost maximally".

The multi-stage fitness test (MSFT), also known as the beep test, bleep test, PACERtest (progressive aerobic cardiovascular endurance run), or the 20m shuttle run test, is a running test used to estimate an athlete's aerobic capacity (VO2 max).

Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) refers to the ability of the circulatory and respiratory systems to supply oxygen to skeletal muscles during sustained physical activity. Scientists and researchers use CRF to assess the functional capacity of the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. These functions include ventilation, perfusion, gas exchange, vasodilation, and delivery of oxygen to the body's tissues. As these body's functions are vital to an individual's health, CRF allows observers to quantify an individual's morbidity and mortality risk as a function of cardiorespiratory health.

One-repetition maximum in weight training is the maximum amount of weight that a person can possibly lift for one repetition. It may also be considered as the maximum amount of force that can be generated in one maximal contraction.

Interval training is a type of training exercise that involves a series of high-intensity workouts interspersed with rest or break periods. The high-intensity periods are typically at or close to anaerobic exercise, while the recovery periods involve activity of lower intensity. Varying the intensity of effort exercises the heart muscle, providing a cardiovascular workout, improving aerobic capacity and permitting the person to exercise for longer and/or at more intense levels.

Lactate inflection point (LIP) is the exercise intensity at which the blood concentration of lactate and/or lactic acid begins to increase rapidly. It is often expressed as 85% of maximum heart rate or 75% of maximum oxygen intake. When exercising at or below the lactate threshold, any lactate produced by the muscles is removed by the body without it building up.

vV̇O2max (velocity at maximal oxygen uptake), also known as maximal aerobic speed (MAS), is an intense running or swimming pace. This is the minimum speed for which the organism's maximal oxygen uptake (VO2 max) is reached, after a few minutes of constantly maintaining this exercise intensity. At higher paces, any additional increase in power is provided by anaerobic processes. In an incremental exercise test, it is the first speed at which any increase in exercise intensity fails to elicit an increase in oxygen consumption.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cardiovascular fitness</span> Heart-related component of physical fitness

Cardiovascular fitness refers to a health-related component of physical fitness that is brought about by sustained physical activity. A person's ability to deliver oxygen to the working muscles is affected by many physiological parameters, including heart rate, stroke volume, cardiac output, and maximal oxygen consumption.

The Tecumseh step test is an exercise test that researchers use to determine a person's cardiovascular fitness level.

Hypoventilation training is a physical training method in which periods of exercise with reduced breathing frequency are interspersed with periods with normal breathing. The hypoventilation technique consists of short breath holdings and can be performed in different types of exercise: running, cycling, swimming, rowing, skating, etc.

In kinesiology, the ventilatory threshold (VT1) refers to the point during exercise at which ventilation starts to increase at a faster rate than VO2 (V – volume, O2 – oxygen). One's threshold is said to reflect levels of anaerobiosis and lactate accumulation. As the intensity level of the activity being performed increases, breathing becomes faster; more steadily first and then more rapid as the intensity increases. When breathing surpasses normal ventilation rate, one has reached ventilatory threshold. For most people this threshold lies at exercise intensities between 50% and 75% of VO2 max. A major factor affecting one's ventilatory threshold is their maximal ventilation (amount of air entering and exiting lungs). This is dependent on their personal experience with the activity and how physically fit the person is. Comparison studies of more athletic people have shown that your ventilatory threshold occurs at a higher intensity if you are more active or have been training for that exercise; although, in some cases shorter continuous tests can be used because of rapid alterations in ventilation.

The Yo-Yointermittent test is aimed at estimating performance in stop-and-go sports like football (soccer), cricket, basketball and the like. It was conceived around the early 1990s by Jens Bangsbo, a Danish soccer physiologist, then described in a 2008 paper, "The Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test". Like many other tests of fitness, it involves running at ever-increasing speeds, to exhaustion. However, a crucial difference is that the Yo-Yo Intermittent test has periodic rest intervals, thus simulating the nature of exertion in stop-and-go sports.

References

  1. ↑ "Dictionary of Sport and Exercise Science and Medicine by Churchill Livingstone". Incremental exercise. The Free Dictionary. 2008. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  2. 1 2 Bentley DJ, Newell J, Bishop D (2007). "Incremental exercise test design and analysis: implications for performance diagnostics in endurance athletes". Sports Med. 37 (7): 575–86. doi:10.2165/00007256-200737070-00002. PMID   17595153. S2CID   22045351.
  3. ↑ Laplaud D, Hug F, Grélot L (2006). "Reproducibility of eight lower limb muscles activity level in the course of an incremental pedaling exercise". Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology. 16 (2): 158–166. doi:10.1016/j.jelekin.2005.04.002. ISSN   1050-6411. PMID   16126412.
  4. 1 2 Reid WD, Chung F (2004). Clinical management notes and case histories in cardiopulmonary physical therapy. Thorofare, NJ: SLACK Incorporated. pp. 56–58. ISBN   978-1-55642-568-4.
  5. ↑ Dekerle J, Baron B, Dupont L, Garcin M, Vanvelcenaher J, Pelayo P (2003). "Effect of incremental and submaximal constant load tests: protocol on perceived exertion (CR10) values". Perceptual and Motor Skills. 96 (3 Pt 1): 896–904. doi:10.2466/pms.2003.96.3.896. PMID   12831268. S2CID   10393808.
  6. ↑ "Energy system contributions during incremental exercise test". Journal of Sports Science and Medicine. 2013.
  7. ↑ Pires FO, Hammond J, Lima-Silva AE, Bertuzzi RM, Kiss MA (2011). "Ventilation behavior During upper-body incremental exercise". Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 25 (1): 225–230. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181b2b895 . ISSN   1064-8011. PMID   20093972. S2CID   31984035.
  8. ↑ "Understanding VT1 and VT2". ACE. April Merritt. January 10, 2011.
  9. ↑ Lyon E, Menke M, Foster C, Porcari JP, Gibson M, Bubbers T (2014). "Translation of Incremental Talk Test Responses to Steady-State Exercise Training Intensity". Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention. 34 (4): 271–275. doi:10.1097/HCR.0000000000000069. ISSN   1932-7501. PMID   24911334. S2CID   205621133.
  10. 1 2 Nichols, N. "How to Measure for Exercise Intensity without a Heart Rate Monitor". SparkPeople. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
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