Discuss the practical considerations and limitations involved in anaerobic exercise testing

Answer 1

Unlike the measurement of oxygen uptake (VO2) for aerobic performance, there is no one single anaerobic measurement technique that has been recognized as the gold standard that, over time, has been consistently associated with anaerobic work. Anaerobic performance depends heavily on an individual's ability to recruit, rate code, and synchronize a large number of fast-twitch fibers rapidly. Limiting factors associated with anaerobic performance include the individual's genetic predisposition to the amount of fast-twitch fibers he or she possesses in a given muscle group. Other factors that affect anaerobic work performance are the individual's training state, age, and sex. Factors associated with motivation (central nervous system arousal) and the learning effects of comprehending how to optimally perform an anaerobic type of test can negatively affect anaerobic test performance, perhaps even more so than in aerobic exercise testing. Although exercise physiologists and other exercise scientists have traditionally used anaerobic field tests to assess anaerobic performance, many of these tests, such as the vertical jump, 40-yard dash, and some sport-specific assessments, do not correlate well with more accepted laboratory anaerobic measures. However, when multiple traditional field tests are given to clients and the results are evaluated collectively, they do provide better predictability of anaerobic performance than any single test. Thus, many of the anaerobic tests that exercise physiologists rely on are traditional and popular, even though many present measurement challenges that are often difficult to control and interpret.