Maximum oxygen uptakes of college swimmers.

Abstract

The maximum oxygen uptake of 26 highly trained college swimmers was measured during treadmill running, tethered swimming, and free swimming. to the treadmill test, 5-min runs were made at 7 mph up increasing grades. The tethered-swimming test consisted of 3-min swims during which increasing weights were supported. The free-swimming test included a warm-up followed by six maximum 50-yd swims during which energy expenditure was measured. For maximum oxygen uptake during tethered swimming, the test-retest correlation of 0.93 and the lack of a significant difference with a paired t analysis indicated good reproducibility. No significant difference was observed between the mean maximum oxygen uptake during treadmill running (4.20 liters/min) and during tethered swimming (4.14 liters/min). The correlation coefficient was 0.85. The pulmonary ventilation and respiratory exchange ratio were significantly lower and oxygen extraction was significantly higher swimming tethered than running. The correlation coefficient between maximum oxygen uptake swimming tethered and swimming free was 0.90. The mean aerobic capacity swimming free (4.39 liters/min) was significantly greater than the mean obtained swimming tethered (4.27 liters/min), possibly due to a training effect.