ReviewSports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.)2008
Challenging a dogma of exercise physiology: does an incremental exercise test for valid VO 2 max determination really need to last between 8 and 12 minutes?
Review in Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 56 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
56 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Ventilatory Thresholds Differences According to Aerobic Fitness Level in 1450 Males and 241 Females on Cycle-Ergometer: A Cross-Sectional Study.European journal of sport science · 2025Trial
- Differences in the ventilatory thresholds in treadmill according to training status in 971 males and 301 females: a cross-sectional study.European journal of applied physiology · 2025Trial
- The effect of a standardized verbal encouragement protocol on peak oxygen uptake during incremental treadmill testing in healthy individuals: A randomized cross-over trial.European journal of sport science · 2024Trial
- Trial
- Sprint Interval Running and Continuous Running Produce Training Specific Adaptations, Despite a Similar Improvement of Aerobic Endurance Capacity-A Randomized Trial of Healthy Adults.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Trial
- Modality determines VO2max achieved in self-paced exercise tests: validation with the Bruce protocol.European journal of applied physiology · 2016Trial
- Effects of acid-base balance and high or low intensity exercise on VEGF and bFGF.European journal of applied physiology · 2011Trial
- Towards Accurate Reference Values for Heart Rate and Speed Zones by Aerobic Fitness and Sex in Long-Distance Runners.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Sport-specific performance assessment with oxygen uptake measurements in time trials and critical power tests.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Associations of Physical Fitness During Childhood with Arterial Structure and Stiffness in Adolescence: An 8-Year Follow-up Study.Sports medicine - open · 2025Article
- Relative and absolute intensity accelerometer metrics decipher the effects of age, sex, and occupation on physical activity.BMC public health · 2025Observational
- Modulation of physical exercise intensity in motor-cognitive training of adults using the SKILLCOURT technology.Physiological reports · 2024Article
- Consequences of adolescent sport-related concussion: exploring long-term cardiorespiratory fitness and adiposity.Annals of medicine · 2024Article
- Submaximal Verification Test to Exhaustion Confirms Maximal Oxygen Uptake: Roles of Anaerobic Performance and Respiratory Muscle Strength.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- A verification phase adds little value to the determination of maximum oxygen uptake in well-trained adults.European journal of applied physiology · 2024Article
- Predicting VOFrontiers in physiology · 2023Article
- Specific Incremental Test for Aerobic Fitness in Trail Running: IncremenTrail.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- VascuFit: vascular effects of non-linear periodized exercise training in sedentary adults with elevated cardiovascular risk - protocol for a randomized controlled trial.BMC cardiovascular disorders · 2022Article
- Physiological Implication of Slope Gradient during Incremental Running Test.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
A widely cited recommendation is that to elicit valid maximal oxygen uptake (VO(2 max)) values, incremental exercise tests should last between 8 and 12 minutes. However, this recommendation originated from the findings of a single experimental study conducted by Buchfuhrer et al. in 1983. Although this study is an important contribution to scientific knowledge, it should not be viewed as sufficient evidence to support the recommendation for eliciting valid VO(2 max) values. At least eight studies have reported that durations as short as 5 minutes and as long as 26 minutes elicit VO(2 max) values similar to those derived from tests of 8-12 minutes' duration. Two studies reported that the shorter test protocols elicited significantly higher VO(2 max) values in untrained men and women. In three studies that reported significantly higher VO(2 max) values determined during tests of 8-12 minutes than during more prolonged tests, the prolonged tests were associated with maximal treadmill grades of 20-25%, compared with 6-10% in the shorter tests. Therefore, intolerable treadmill grades, rather than the prolonged test duration, may have limited the ability to elicit VO(2 max). In view of the available evidence, test administrators, reviewers and journal editors should not view 8-12 minutes' duration for incremental exercise tests as obligatory for valid VO(2 max) determination. Current evidence suggests that to elicit valid VO(2 max) values, cycle ergometer tests should last between 7 and 26 minutes and treadmill tests between 5 and 26 minutes. This is dependent on the qualification that short tests are preceded by an adequate warm-up and that treadmill grades do not exceed 15%. Current research is too limited to indicate appropriate test duration ranges for discontinuous test protocols, or protocols incorporating high treadmill grades.
Indexed as
Identifiers
18489192What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.