Muscle-damaging exercise 48h prior to a maximal incremental exercise treadmill test reduces time to exhaustion : is it time to reconsider our pretest procedures?

Pretest guidelines typically stipulate that no exercise should be performed 48 h prior to a maximal incremental exercise (MIE) test. However, no study has specifically investigated if this timescale alters key outcome variables associated with MIE. Twenty apparently healthy males split into two equal groups performed MIE during three visits (visits 1 – MIEEXP1, 2 – MIEEXP2 and 4 – MIEEXP3). The experimental group only, performed muscle-damaging exercise during visit 3. From (Formula presented.)EXP2 to MIEEXP3 average time to exhaustion (TTE) decreased by 45 s (9%) (p < 0.01), maximum blood lactate decreased by 1.2 mmol/L (11%) (p = 0.03), and perceived readiness decreased by 8 mm (18%) (p = 0.01). There were no changes in any MIE variables in the control group (p ≥ 0.37). Performing MIE 48 h following muscle-damaging exercise impairs specific, but not all, physiological outcome variables.