The use of one-arm crank ergometry in the prediction of upper body aerobic capacity

Abstract

Objective: To determine whether a submaximal one-arm cranking test could be used to predict an individual's upper body aerobic capacity. This issue has potential importance for the fitness assessment of individuals with neurological disease or damage who have hemiplegia. Methods: Nine healthy male volunteers (33 ± 2.4 years) and nine female volunteers (27 ± 1.9 years) performed a two-arm maximal, two-arm submaximal test and a one-arm submaximal arm crank ergometry test. Heart rate (HR) was monitored via a three-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) and expired air was analysed every 30 seconds throughout. Prediction of peak oxygen consumption ( V O2peak) was calculated by linear extrapolation to an age-adjusted HRpeak. Results: Heart rate and VO2 were highly correlated in each test, and there were no significant differences between the VO2peak values obtained from maximal cranking and VO2peak predicted from one-and two-arm submaximal tests for males and females. As expected, males were found to have significantly ( p<0.001) higher actual and predicted VO2peak values, indicating that separate regression equations should be used for males and females. Conclusions: Heart rate values obtained during one-arm submaximal cranking have the potential to predict arm cranking VO2peak, and therefore provide an estimation of an individual's aerobic capacity, in addition to those obtained from the more traditional two-arm tests.