Monitoring Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Professional Soccer Players: Is It Worth the Prick?
in International Journal of Sports Physiology and PerformancePurpose: To compare between-tests changes in submaximal exercise heart rate (HRex, 3 min, 12 km/h) and the speed associated with 4 mmol/L of blood lactate (V4mmol) in soccer players to get insight into their level of agreement and respective sensitivity to changes in players’ fitness. Methods: A total of 19 elite professional players (23 [3] y) performed 2 to 3 graded incremental treadmill tests (3-min stages interspersed with 1 min of passive recovery, starting speed 8 km/h, increment 2 km/h until exhaustion or 18 km/h if exhaustion was not reached before) over 1.5 seasons. The correlation between the changes in HRex and V4mmol was examined. Individual changes in the 2 variables were compared (>2 × typical error considered “clear”). Results: The changes in HRex and V4mmol were largely correlated (r = .82; 90% confidence interval, .65–.91). In more than 90% of the cases, when a clear individual change in HRex was observed, it was associated with a similar clear change in V4mmol (the same direction, improvement, or impairment of fitness) and conversely. Conclusions: When it comes to testing players submaximally, the present results suggest that practitioners can use HRex or V4mmol interchangeably with confidence. However, in comparison with a field-based standardized warm-up run (3–4 min, all players together), the value of a multistage incremental test with repeated blood lactate samplings is questionable for a monitoring purpose given its time, labor, cost, and poorer player buy-in.
The authors are with the Performance Dept, Paris Saint-Germain Football Club, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France. Buchheit is also with the Sport Science Dept, Myorobie Association, Montvalezan, France. Buchheit and Lacome are also with the Research Dept, Sport Laboratory, Expertise and Performance (EA 7370), French Institute of Sports, Paris, France.
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