Changes in VO2max consumption due to intensive endurance training

Abstract

The aim of this thesis was to test whether a group of male athletes was capable of reaching their real VO2max consumption in a state of exhaustion. VO2max consumption was tested before, during and the first day after a week of hard endurance training. The training was varied, but all sessions were of intensive character, so the participants should reach a state of exhaustion.

The participants in our experiment were 11 male students from The Norwegian University of Sports and Physical Education, 20-25 years of age.

The results showed a tendency in VO2max consumption increase throughout the week, but this increase was not significant (p<0,05).

Even though there was no significant change in VO2max consumption in the test period, we could not conclude that the athletes reached their real VO2max consumption in the last test, because we could not exclude the possibility that the aerobe capasity had increased during the week. To examine this we did three posttests four days after the end of the experiment. These showed all an evident increase in VO2max consumption.