The Relationship between Aerobic Fitness and Change in Repeated Sprint Ability before and after a Half-time

This study investigated the relationship between aerobic ˆtness and repeated sprint ability (RSA) before and after a half-time. Thirteen male volunteers (23 ± 2 years, 175 ± 5 cm, 67 ± 6 kg; [mean ± standard error]) participated in this study. All subjects underwent two laboratory tests on a cycle ergometer. An initial test was conducted to determine aerobic ˆtness. On separate day, the RSA test was conducted. The RSA exercise comprised 15 × 6-s sprints with 54-s recovery periods. This was duplicated after a 15-min half-time. The blood lactate (Bla) removal rate was calculated using Bla values before and after the half-time. As a result of aerobic ˆtness, seven subjects were classiˆed as ˆt (  58 ml/kg/min) and six as unˆt ( ＜ 58 ml/kg/min). The maximal peak power was signiˆcantly reduced in the unˆt group (p ＜ 0.05) but not in the ˆt group (p ＞ 0.05) at the second session. The change in maximal peak power between sessions was signiˆcantly correlated with _VO 2 max (r ＝ 0.714, p ＜ 0.01). A strong correlation was observed between Bla removal rate and _VO 2 max (r ＝ 0.830, p ＜ 0.01). These results indicate that aerobically ˆt subjects recover more quickly after RSA exercise due to superior lactate removal