Archives of Physiology and Biochemistry 1995, Vol. 103, No. 1, pp. 65-72 1381-3455/95/10301-006586.00 © Swets & Zeitlinger A TEST TO APPROACH MAXIMAL LACTATE STEADY-STATE IN 12-YEAR OLD Boys AND GIRLS V. Billat!, A. Gratas-Delamarche?, M. Monier? and P. Delamarche? "Laboratoire STAPS, Université Paris XII, Créteil, France and 2UFRAPS, Université Rennes II, Rennes, France ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to meature the running velocity corresponding tothe individual maximal lactate: steady-state ofa group of 12-year old boys and girls on a treadmill. This ranning velocity (Yysp) was compared with the maximal aerobic running velocity (Yq may) t Which maximal oxygen uptake (VO; max) occurs. Thirteen Dupils of the same school whase puberal maturation corresponded to the end of stage 2 and the beginning of stage of Tanner: 6 boys (12.2 years old # 0.5, 38.4 + 2 kg, 150 + 4.8 em: group 1) and 7 girs (12.3 years old + 0.5, 37.6 £ 6 kg, 151.4 + 5.6 cm: group 2) carried out two tests at one week interval. The frst test was @ maximal incremental tet for the determination of VO, max with Douglas's bag method and ¥, may The Purpose of the second test was the determination of maximal lactate steadystate velocity (yz sq) With two stages of ten minutes at 60 # 5% and 74 + 4.5% V5 mae Separated by 40 minutes of complete rest (Billa 1992): VO, mus ere significaniy different, equal 10 49.4 + 7 mlmin''kg!, 40.4 £ 47 miming” and 126 20-2 km. W112 £ 1.2 kmh"! for group 1 and 2 respectively (P< 0.05). Moreover, maximal lactate steady state velocity (>yausy) Was respectively equal 10 64.8 + 12.5% and 64.6% + 12.5% VO, max respectively, representing 67.8 62% and 68.8% + 8.3% Vag and was not significantly different for group | and 2. {In conclusion, this study shows that maximal lactate steady-state velocity isnot significantly different between ‘young boys and girls of 12 years old, when expressed in fraction of VO, max OF Yyge However, VO, max and % max Were significantly higher in boys: + 27.2 and + 11.6% higher respectively. KEY WORDS: maximal lactate steady-state; running; young girl and boy. INTRODUCTION ‘The anaerobic threshold (An) commonly defined as the workload, speed, or fraction of VO, max at a fixed blood lactate concentration of 4 mmol.I! dur- ing stepwise increasing test procedures, is accepted as ameasure for endurance ability (Heck eral, 1985). Previous studies have demonstrated that achild shows AnT at a higher fraction of VO, max as compared with an adult in untrained populations. However, the uration and the increments of the stages of the incremental exercise protocole used to determine the anaerobic threshold overestimate the maximal lac- Correspondence to: Dr. Véronique Billat, Laboratoi STAPS, UFR CIS, Université Paris XII, 61 av. du Général de Gaulle, 94010 Créteil, France. tate steady-state workload, especially in highly trained ‘endurance athletes (Mognoni et a., 1990; Stegmann & Kindermann, 1982). A real maximal lactate steady- state needs four or five prolonged exercise sessions of up to 30 min duration performed at exercise in- tensities between 50 and 90% VO, max (Lafontaine et al., 1981; Londeree & Ames, 1975; Nagle et al. 1970; Urhausen et al, 1993). Running economy, i.e. ©, cost per unit of km run and body mass (ml.kg"!. kam!) is another component of endurance perform- ance in adults (di Prampero et al, 1986) but also in children whose aerobic cos is highet thar in adults (Davies, 1980; Rowland, 1989). Therefore, some au- thors recommend that exercise programs aiming at improving aerobic fitness in pre-pubescent children should comply with standards recommended for tr6 YV. Bar er AL, ‘ning programs in adults which take into account ve- Jocity at VO, fnax and at the maximal lactate steady- state (Rotstgin ¢t al, 1986; Rowland, 1989; Vaccaro & Mahon; 1987): The purpose of this study was to apply a method of measuring the running velocity corresponding to the individual maximal lactate steady-state of a group of 12-year old boys and girls fon a treadmill. This run expressed in % V, max OF in % VO, max and was calculated using only (wo submaximal stages of 15 minutes each and separated by a 40 minutes interval only. This test was previously validated and planned for long-distance test specialists with two stages of 20 min (Billat, 1992). METHODS Principle for the method of determination of maxi- ‘mal lactate steady-state velocity (Vyzsp) with 2 sub- ‘maximal stages (Fig. 1). The principle of the method depends on the variation of lactatemia with time duri two steady-state workload (velocities) exercises (Bil- lat, 1992). The difference between the lactatemia values was computed between the lactatemia value ‘at Smin and the lactatemia value at 15 minutes (15-5). At moderate velocity (60 + 5% of V, ma) A lactate (mmol.IVA time (15 min-5 min) is negative and positive at heavy workload (74 + 4.5% Of Vy mux) (Fig. 1). After determining these two distinct evolu- Blood A Blood lactate lactate (amo. 1" (amo) 5 32 atzny2 dlaey2}— - - = 3 = —*0 —__LMLST ie aL=o 2 Lie Lieyt 1 uae x1 aa x2 Fig. 1. Viqusp DETERMINATION FROM TWO SUBMAXIMAL STAGES PERFORMED AT 40 MIN OF INTERVAL: On the left:y axis is the lactacidemia measured at the time t, (5 min) and t, (15 min) during the two stages where AL, (y,) is positive in the first stage (the lowest one) and where AL? (y,) is negative in the second stage (the highest one). x axis isthe time at which lactaci ia has been measured. (On the right: y axis is the Inctacidemia measured at the time t, and t, during the two stages where ALI (y,) is in the first stage and where AL, (y,) it negative inthe second stage. x axis is the velocity: x, is the ity ofthe frst sage (V,) and x isthe velocity of the second stage (V;). Then x, (which i the maximal lactate steady-state velocity Vyq. x) Can be calculated since: Bo= Veaisti X= Vii X2= Va yg = ALIAC= 0; yy = AL, (-); yp = Aly (+) te writen: Vig gg = 22H it canbe writen: Vase = yy can be expressed in kmi! or % VO,max. For example the fist boy had av, max (velocity at VOmax) equal to 12.5 km.t'. 1.0) and VO, peak was con- sidered as VO, max (Rowland, 1993). The mean ab- solute and relative values of VO, max are in accord- ance with the ones measured in previous studies via the open-circuit method during treadmill running (Armstrong et al, 1991; Krahenbuhl et al, 1978; Rowland, 1993; Shechan et al., 1987). Krahenbuhl etal. (1978) have found that males 11.1 years (a=49) old exceeded females (n=34) in VO, max (45.2 vs 41.2 mL.min"l.kg"!) and achieved significantly faster times on all running distances. In 7 boys and girts of 11.7 years old, Armstrong e¢ al. (1991) have found a kg’! in VO, peak (48 vs 43 'kg'!), In the present study the difference between the boys and gitls is more important (9 ml.min‘!.kg"!) but the HR and L, max values are very close and similar to the values obtained in pre~ vious studies (Armstrong et al, 1991; Krahenbubl et al,, 1978; Rowland, 1993; Sheehan et al, 1987; Vac- caro & Mahon, 1987). ¥, may is higher in the boys compared with the girls and the mean values of Vg max (12.6 and 11.2 km.h!) are in accordance with those reported in previous studies in similar age groups. Mocellin ef al. (1991) found a, max Value equal to 12.4 km.h'! + 0.8 in young boys 12.1 years old. Rostein et al. (1986) foimnd a speed at YO, max equal to 12.2 £ 0.6 km.h!. Moreover, V4 ug i8 the ratio between VO, max (ml.kg"!min"!) and running economy (in mlO,.kg"!.km") (Di Prampero et at, 1986). Yet, the range of values for the human spe- cies lies between 160 and 240 mlO,.ke"!.km"! (di Prampero et al., 1986). According to other studies young girls and boys are in the mean value of that range in the present study (Davies, 1980; Rowland et al, 1988). The significant difference in running economy between girls and boys can be explained by adifference in body weight. Indeed, Davies (1980) has previously shown that external loading equiva- lent to 5% of body weight reduces O, cost, particu- lary atthe highest speed in five active giris and boys 11-13 years old. However, forall the 13 subjects RE is not correlated with weight. RE is inversely related to maximal blood lactate steady-state velocity (Yjgp) values expressed in % VO, max as previously shown for adult long-distance runners (Costll, 1976). How- ever, in the present study vyq, gy Values expressed in % VO, max are comparable with the values previ- ously obtained in untrained adults with steady-state protocols (Lafontaine et al, 1981; Londeree & Ames, 1975; Nagle et al, 1970). Nagle et al (1970), using three independent stages of 60, 40 and 30 minutes duration at 70, 80 and 90% respectively VO, max, found a lactate steady-state equal to 77% of VO, ‘max in trained men. Mognoni et al. (1990) exam- ined physiological responses during prolonged exer- cise at the power output corresponding to the blood lactate threshold of 4 mmol.I". In 34 moderately fit males, twenty were exhausted at the mean exhaus- tion time of 38.2 min instead of the 60 min sched- uled with a final 1, equal to 5.3 + 2.3 mmol. On the contrary, Mocellin ef al. (1990) using rectangu- lar protocols lasting 16 minutes with 11-year old ‘boys demonstrated than an equilibrium between lac- tate production and elimination could be maintained exercise intensities above the predicted lactic thresh- ld value measured with an incremental protocol con- sisting of stages lasting 2 minutes and speed incre- ments of 1 km.h"! (from 6 km. study these authoré showed that 12-year old boys demonstrated a steady-state in blood lactate concen- trations at 88% of VO, and 89% of ¥, max (Mocellin etal,, 1991). The authors considered that the maxi- mal steady-state blood lactate concentration was as- sumed, if, during running at a constant speed, the‘Youn Gints Ano Boys ENDURANCE n difference between the last concentration measured after 3 and 5 min of running exceeded 1 mmol. and the increase was discontinuous, or if a continu- ‘us increase in blood lactate exceeding 0.5 mmol." was observed during the run, In our study the value ‘Yyausr is much lower when expressed in % VO, max and 4 V, ma, (below 70%). In absolute value, Vig st is equal to 8.5 and 7.7 km.h" (for boys and girls) 5 11 km.h" for 12-years old boys in Mocellin’s study. ‘Tanaka & Shindo (1985) found that velocity at blood Jactate threshold was equal to 10.98 km.h"! in a sim- ilar age group (12 years old boys), which is very lose tothe last study. However, in the present experi- ment, Yyqsr iS not observed but is calculated (Fig. 0: Yyasr is the velocity corresponding to the strict stabilization of I, between the 9% and 15!" minute of a continuous exercise at the same velocity. How- ever, it can be hypothesized that Vyqsr is not the real maximal lactate steady-state value for two ma jor reasons: = frst, because maximal lactate steady-state criteria can be an increase in lactate in the range of 0.2 t0 1 mmol." during an interval of 5to 10 min (Urhausen etal, 1993). ~ second, because the subjects did not run at a work- load over Via sr (68% ¥, max)- However, for half of the subjects (3 boys and’ girls see Table 3) the Yyqust Value was very close to the upper stage (74.5% ‘VO, max) where an accumulation of blood lactate vs time was observed. Itcan be hypothesized that Vigisr is very close tothe real maximal lactate steady-state considering the level of accuracy of lactacidemia ‘measurement. Moreover, a VO, drift has been found during the upper stage at 74% in VO, max for the girls but not the boys. Poole etal (1988) described a VO, drift fora workload above the anaerobic threshold (workload above the workload at 4 mmol.) In or- der to minimize the margin of error due to the non Tinearity of AL/At with power output the workload of the two stages must be chosen close to the maxi- imal lactate steady-state power output which is hy- pothesized. It is approximatively bellow and above the maximal workload which can be sustained dur- ing one hour. Macek et al. (1976) have shown that 10 prepuberal boys aged 12 years could easily run ‘one hour at 60% VO, max) b, decreasing from 1.53 and 1.09 mmol." between the 10! and the 60! min The 15 min duration of the stage has been chosen because of a marked increase (at the upper stage) and a decrease in blood lactate at the lower stage after the early lactate elimination after the 5" min (Cerretteli er al., 1979). The early lactate represents part of the energy necessary for completing the ex- ercise occuring at the same time as the oxygen det cit at the start of the exercise. When the workload values are low, close to 60% VO, max, the “early lactate” is reutilized in the glyconeogenesis process ‘or oxydized. On the other hand, for higher work- loads, close to 75% VO, max in our study and 82% and 93% VO, max for adult males trained in endur- ance (Billat, 1992; Rieu et al., 1989) a progressive accumulation of blood lactate is observable. Thus, the maximal lactate steady-state has to be calculated between 60 and 90% VO, max. ‘The maximal steady-state lactatemia value obtained ‘using this rectangular protocol is close to 4 mmol.1" with a range going from 2.2 to 5 mmol. These results are similar to those reported in a previous study carried out in 16 adult males, trained in endur- ance (Bllat, 1992; Billat et al, 1994). The impor- tant range of maximal lactate steady-state value (L_ Ysausr) obtained in the two groups confirms that the use of an absolute value of lactatemia 2.5 mmol. and 4 mmoL.I" for children and adults, respectively is not aceurate to estimate lactic threshold (Reybrouck, 1989). In conclusion, the determination of the maximal lactate steady-state velocity (Vyq. sq). using only two 15-minute running stages at 60 and 75% VO, max and separated by a 40-minute rest period is simple for the untrained young boys and girls who have no difficulty with this submaximal effort. In untrained young boys and girls aged 12, Viqusr Values are in the order of 8 to 8.5 km.h", the knowledge of this ance training programme without risk of overtrai ing for children. REFERENCES ‘ARMSTRONG, N., WILLIAMS, J. BALDING 7 ‘Kinoy, B. (1991) The peak oxygen uptake of British children with reference to age, ex and sexual maturity. Eur. J. Appl. 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