Eur J Appl Physiol (1991) 63:273-277 European Joum.I of Applied Physiology and Occupational Physiology © Springer-Verlag 1991 Blood lactate concentration following intermittent and continuous cycling tests of anaerobic capacity L. P. Koziris and D. L. Montgomery Department of Physical Education, McGill University, 475 Pine Avenue West, Montreal, PQ, Canada H2W 1S4 Accepted May 22, 1991 Summary. The purpose of this study was to compare the time and the magnitude of peak blood lactate con- centration [La] following three 90-s cycle-ergometer tests. Intermittent all-out, continuous all-out, and con- tinuous constant cycling tests were performed by 19 hockey players and 19 physical education students. Eight fingertip blood samples were drawn 1-11 min into recovery. [La] was similar between 3 min and 8 min of recovery for the three 90-s tests. [La] at the individual peak time was similar to that in samples taken at 1-4 min for the intermittent all-out test, 2-6 min for the continuous all-out test, and 2-4 min for the continuous constant cycling test. The intermittent and continuous all-out tests produced higher [La] at the individual peak time than did the continuous constant test. The inter- mittent all-out test produced an earlier peak [La] than the continuous tests. Both time and magnitude of peak [La] are dependent on the mode of testing. Key words: Peak lactate - Intermittent exercise - Cy- cling tests - Anaerobic capacity - Ice hockey Introduction Blood lactate concentration [La] has been widely ac- cepted as an indicator of anaerobic glycolytic metabol- ism (Gollnick and Hermansen 1973). Trained subjects have higher peak [La] than sedentary subjects (Edwards 1983). The highest [La] values are usually observed in trained elite athletes exposed to acute physiological stress 1-2 min in duration (Kindermann and Keul 1977). [La] has been increasingly used as a metabolic marker during physiological testing through the devel- opment of simple and accurate measurement tech- niques as well as through the apparent relationship be- tween lactate and exercise response (Jacobs 1986). Offprint requests to: L. P. Koziris, Center for Sports Medicine, Greenberg Indoor Sports Complex, The Pennsylvania State Uni- versity, University Park, PA 16802, USA Peak [La] is a function of production, transfer from muscle to blood, and removal from the blood (Brooks and Divine-Spurgeon 1982; Gollnick and Hermansen 1973; Jacobs 1986). Peak [La] is commonly measured following anaerobic tests. To avoid serial measure- ments, a single blood sample, usually taken 4-5 rain after exercise, is drawn (deCoster et al. 1969; Gollnick et al. 1986). After subjecting untrained men to approxi- mately 1 min of continuous running to exhaustion, Fu- jitsuka et al. (1982) obtained serial blood samples and found that the [La] in a single sample taken 7.65 min after exercise was similar to the subjects' individual peak concentration. Both the time and magnitude of peak [La] may be functions of the mode, intensity, and duration of activi- ty. Anaerobic tests have almost exclusively been contin- uous in nature. All-out intermittent activity should re- sult in a different [La] response compared to contin- uous activity. Sustained muscular contractions restrict blood flow through working muscles but allow in- creased blood flow immediately following exercise (Barcroft and Millen 1939; Gray and Staub 1967; Saltin et al. 1981 ; Williams et al. 1978). Occluding the exercis- ing muscle maintains a higher muscle lactate (Edwards et al. 1971) and a lower pH (Rexroth et al. 1989), which would reduce anaerobic glycolysis during a continuous all-out test. The recovery intervals in an intermittent all- out test would permit more lactate efflux from the mus- cle, thereby increasing the muscle's ability to produce lactate. In addition to supporting greater [La], increased blood flow during the recovery intervals and greater lactate diffusion from the muscle would also suggest an earlier [La] peak following intermittent all-out tests. When intermittent all-out tests have been used (Kac- zynski et al. 1988; Montgomery et al. 1990; Watson and Sargeant 1986), the peak [La] was measured using a sin- gle sample drawn 5 min after exercise. A comparison of [La] values at a series of recovery times with the indi- vidual's peak [La] will determine if a single sample at a specific time is appropriate for intermittent exercise protocols. Even though intermittent anaerobic exercise is common in training the lactacid system, to our