Evidence map›Paper›PMID 27747843›Full record

ArticleSports medicine - open2015

'Aerobic' and 'Anaerobic' terms used in exercise physiology: a critical terminology reflection.

Karim Chamari, Johnny Padulo

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Sports medicine - open, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 62 papers, 8 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
62citing papers in PubMed, 8 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

62 citing papers in PubMed, 8 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Sport supplementation in competitive swimmers: a systematic review with meta-analysis.Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2025
    Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Pooled it
  5. Pooled it
  6. Pooled it
  7. Pooled it
  8. Pooled it
  9. Trial
  10. Trial
  11. Trial
  12. Trial
  13. Experimental physiology · 2026
    Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Review
  19. Article
  20. Article

2 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Karim ChamariAthlete Health and Performance Research Centre, ASPETAR, Qatar Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital, Doha, Qatar.
Johnny PaduloUniversity e-Campus, Via Isimbardi, 10-22060, Novedrate, CO, Italy. sportcinetic@gmail.com.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The purpose of this Current Opinion article is to focus on the appropriate use of the terms 'aerobic'- and 'anaerobic'-exercise in sports medicine, in order to try to unify their use across coaches/athletes and sport scientists. Despite the high quality of most of the investigations, the terms aerobic/anaerobic continue to be used inappropriately by some researchers in exercise science. Until late 2014, for instance, 14,883 and 6,136 articles were cited in PubMed, in the field of 'exercise science', using the words 'aerobic' or 'anaerobic', respectively. In this regard, some authors still misuse these terms. For example, we believe it is wrong to classify an effort as 'anaerobic lactic exercise' when other metabolic pathways are also simultaneously involved. It has extensively been shown that the contribution of the metabolic pathways mainly depends on both exercise intensity and duration. Therefore, it is our intent to further clarify this crucial point and to simplify this terminology for coaches and sports scientists. In this regard, several research articles are discussed in relation to the terminology used to describe the predominant metabolic pathways active at different exercise durations and the oversimplification this introduces. In conclusion, we suggest that sports scientists and field practitioners should use the following terms for all-out ('maximal') efforts based on exercise duration: (a) 'Explosive Efforts' (duration up to 6 s, with preponderance of the 'phosphagens' metabolic pathway'); (b) 'High Intensity Efforts' (efforts comprised between >6 s and 1 min, with preponderance of the 'glycolytic pathway'), and

Identifiers

PMID27747843
PMCPMC5016084

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.