Summary
The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of growth on ventilation and breathing pattern during maximal exercise oxygen consumption (VO2max and their relationships with anthropometric characteristics. Seventy six untrained schoolboys, aged 10.5–15.5 years, participated in this study. Anthropometric measurements made included body mass, height, armspan, lean body mass, and body surface area. During an incremental exercise test, maximal ventilation (VEmax), tidal volume (V Tmax), breathing frequency (f max), inspiratory and expiratory times (t Imax and t Emax), total duration of respiratory cycle (t TOTmax), mean inspiratory flow (V T/t Imax), and inspiration fraction (t I/t TOTmax) were measured at VO2max. A power function was calculated between anthropometric characteristics and ventilatory variables to determine the allometric constants. The results showed firstly, that VEmax, V Tmax, t Imax, t Emax, t TOTmax, and V T/t Imax increased with age and anthropometric characteristics (P<0.001), f max decreased (P<0.001), and t I/t TOTmax remained constant during growth; secondly that lean body mass explained the greatest percentage of variance of VEmax (62.1%), V Tmax (76.8%), and V T/t Imax (70.6%), while anthropometric characteristics explained a slight percentage of variance of f max and timing; and thirdly that VEmax, V Tmax, and V T/t Imax normalized by lean body mass did not change significantly with age. We concluded that at VO2max there were marked changes in ventilation and breathing pattern with growth. The changes in VEmax, V Tmax, and V T/t Imax were strongly related to the changes in lean body mass.
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Mercier, J., Varray, A., Ramonatxo, M. et al. Influence of anthropometric characteristics on changes in maximal exercise ventilation and breathing pattern during growth in boys. Eur J Appl Physiol 63, 235–241 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00233854
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00233854