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Kinetics of oxygen uptake during arm cranking with the legs inactive or exercising at moderate intensities

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the kinetics of oxygen uptake (O2) during arm cranking with the legs inactive or exercising. Each subject (n=8) performed three exercise protocols: 6-min arm cranking at an intensity of 60% of peak oxygen uptake (O2peak, AC60) and 6-min combined arm cranking and leg cycling in which AC60 was added to on-going leg cycling at an intensity of 20% or 40% of V̇O2peak (LC20 and LC40: AC60LC20 and AC60LC40, respectively). After the onset of arm cranking, O2 tended to increase until the end of arm cranking in all of the three exercise modes. The amplitudes of this increase in O2 were 0.98 (0.18), 0.93 (0.16) and 0.84 (0.12) l.min−1 during AC60, AC60LC20 and AC60LC40, respectively, and there were significant differences between values for each exercise. The data are presented as means and standard deviations. There were no significant differences in the effective O2 time constant, partial O2 deficit, and the difference between the values of O2 measured at 3 and 6 min in the three exercise modes. The present results indicate that the amplitude of the increase in O2 is reduced during arm cranking with the legs exercising, that this reduction becomes greater with increases in the intensity of leg cycling, and that the rate of increase in O2 is not affected by the additional muscle mass of the legs exercising below moderate intensities. The decrease in the amplitude of increase in O2 might be caused by reduction in oxygen supply to the exercising arms due to large muscle mass and/or overlaps of activity of stabilizing muscles during combined arm and leg exercise.

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Correspondence to Hisayoshi Ogata.

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Ogata, H., Yano, T. Kinetics of oxygen uptake during arm cranking with the legs inactive or exercising at moderate intensities. Eur J Appl Physiol 94, 17–24 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-004-1230-2

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