Validity and reproducibility of an incremental sit-to-stand exercise test for evaluating anaerobic threshold in young,healthy individuals

Sit-to-stand exercise (sts) is a common activity of daily living. the objectives of the present study were: 1) to assess the validity of aerobic fitness measurements based on anaerobic thresholds (ats),during incremental sit-to-stand exercise (ists) with and without arm support compared with an incremental cycle-ergometer (ce) test; and 2) to examine the reproducibility of the at measured during the istss. twenty-six healthy individuals randomly performed the ists and ce test. oxygen uptakes at the at (at-vo2) and heart rate at the at (at-hr) were determined during the istss and ce test,and repeated-measures analyses of variance and tukey’s post-hoc test were used to evaluate the differences between these variables. pearson correlation coefficients were used to assess the strength of the relationship between at-vo2 and at-hr during the istss and ce test. data analysis yielded the following correlations: at-vo2 during the ists with arm support and the ce test,r = 0.77 (p < 0.05); at-vo2 during the ists without arm support and the ce test,r = 0.70 (p < 0.05); at-hr during the ists with arm support and the ce test,r = 0.80 (p < 0.05); and at-hr during the ists without arm support and the ce test,r = 0.66 (p < 0.05). the at-vo2 values during the ists with arm support (18.5 ± 1.9 ml·min-1·kg-1) and the ce test (18.4 ± 1.8 ml·min-1·kg-1) were significantly higher than those during the ists without arm support (16.6 ± 1.8 ml·min-1·kg-1; p < 0.05). the at-hr values during the ists with arm support (126 ± 10 bpm) and the ce test (126 ± 13 bpm) were significantly higher than those during the ists without arm support (119 ± 9 bpm; p < 0.05). the ists with arm support may provide a cardiopulmonary function load equivalent to the ce test; therefore,it is a potentially valid test for evaluating at-vo2 and at-hr in healthy,young adults. © journal of sports science and medicine.