ReviewMedicine and science in sports and exercise2016
Critical Power: An Important Fatigue Threshold in Exercise Physiology.
Review in Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 3 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 228 papers, 8 of them syntheses 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.
Fatigability and Physical Performance: Effects of Resistance Training Variables Manipulation
Effect of Resistance Training Variable Manipulation (Intensity and Volume) on Body Composition, Fatigability and Functional Capacity in Postmenopausal Breast Cancer Survivors.
Improving Critical Power and Muscle Function in Older Adults With Heat Therapy
Who cites it
228 citing papers in PubMed, 8 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Acute caffeine supplementation and cycling time-trial performance across different task durations: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in physiology · 2026Pooled it
- The global scientific evolution of cardiopulmonary performance and threshold research in sports sciences during 2010-2025: a comparative bibliometric analysis based on web of science and scopus.Frontiers in research metrics and analytics · 2026Pooled it
- Is intensity the most important factor in determining the amount of prior work accumulated that affects cyclists' acute durability? A systematic review.European journal of applied physiology · 2026Pooled it
- Field-based tests for determining critical speed among runners and its practical application: a systematic review.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Factors Influencing AMPK Activation During Cycling Exercise: A Pooled Analysis and Meta-Regression.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2022Pooled it
- Coenzyme QNutrients · 2022Pooled it
- Relative Proximity of Critical Power and Metabolic/Ventilatory Thresholds: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2020Pooled it
- Low carbohydrate availability reduces power output at the moderate-to-heavy transition, impairs efficiency, and increases median power frequency during cycling in females.European journal of applied physiology · 2026Trial
- The effects of menstrual cycle phase on acute critical power testing performance in healthy females.European journal of applied physiology · 2026Trial
- High-dose short-term creatine supplementation without beneficial effects in professional cyclists: a randomized controlled trial.Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2024Trial
- Delaying task failure in high-intensity exercise: a Pi-afferent-effort framework for targeted sports nutrition.Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2026Review
- Can Resistance Training-Induced Skeletal Muscle Growth Improve Local Muscular Endurance?Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2026Review
- Noninvasive assessment of the anaerobic threshold in endurance athletes: an evidence-based narrative review of methods, validity, and field feasibility.British medical bulletin · 2026Review
- Original W'-balance models do not transfer to high-intensity interval training in trained adult runners: Proposal of a single-coefficient linear alternative.Physiological reports · 2026Article
- Article
- Beyond VOGenes · 2026Article
- Extracellular Hemoglobin, Hypoxia, and Macrophage-Mediated Pulmonary Vascular Remodeling in Hemolytic Disease.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- The validity and utility of the all-out test for forearm flexor critical force.European journal of applied physiology · 2026Article
- Effects of Back Pressure on the Feasibility and Tolerability of Laryngeal Diadochokinetic Exercise: A Pilot Study.Journal of voice : official journal of the Voice Foundation · 2026Article
168 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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
Abstract
: The hyperbolic form of the power-duration relationship is rigorous and highly conserved across species, forms of exercise, and individual muscles/muscle groups. For modalities such as cycling, the relationship resolves to two parameters, the asymptote for power (critical power [CP]) and the so-called W' (work doable above CP), which together predict the tolerable duration of exercise above CP. Crucially, the CP concept integrates sentinel physiological profiles-respiratory, metabolic, and contractile-within a coherent framework that has great scientific and practical utility. Rather than calibrating equivalent exercise intensities relative to metabolically distant parameters such as the lactate threshold or V˙O2max, setting the exercise intensity relative to CP unifies the profile of systemic and intramuscular responses and, if greater than CP, predicts the tolerable duration of exercise until W' is expended, V˙O2max is attained, and intolerance is manifested. CP may be regarded as a "fatigue threshold" in the sense that it separates exercise intensity domains within which the physiological responses to exercise can (<CP) or cannot (>CP) be stabilized. The CP concept therefore enables important insights into 1) the principal loci of fatigue development (central vs. peripheral) at different intensities of exercise and 2) mechanisms of cardiovascular and metabolic control and their modulation by factors such as O2 delivery. Practically, the CP concept has great potential application in optimizing athletic training programs and performance as well as improving the life quality for individuals enduring chronic disease.
Indexed as
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What 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.