Blood lactate thresholds and walking/running economy are determinants of backpack-running performance in trained soldiers

Simpson, Richard J.; Graham, Scott M.; Connaboy, Christopher; Clement, Richard; Pollonini, Luca; Florida-James, Geraint D.

doi:10.1016/j.apergo.2016.04.010

Blood lactate thresholds and walking/running economy are determinants of backpack-running performance in trained soldiers

Simpson, Richard J.; Graham, Scott M.; Connaboy, Christopher; Clement, Richard; Pollonini, Luca; Florida-James, Geraint D.

Authors

Richard J. Simpson

Scott M. Graham

Christopher Connaboy

Richard Clement

Luca Pollonini

Prof G Florida-James G.Florida-James@napier.ac.uk
Professor

Abstract

We developed a standardized laboratory treadmill protocol for assessing physiological responses to a simulated backpack load-carriage task in trained soldiers, and assessed the efficacy of blood lactate thresholds (LTs) and economy in predicting future backpack running success over an 8-mile course in field conditions. LTs and corresponding physiological responses were determined in 17 elite British soldiers who completed an incremental treadmill walk/run protocol to exhaustion carrying 20 kg backpack load. Treadmill velocity at the breakpoint (r = −0.85) and Δ 1 mmol l−1 (r = −0.80)
LTs, and relative VO2 at 4 mmol l−1 (r = 0.76) and treadmill walk/run velocities of 6.4 (r = 0.76), 7.4 (r = 0.80), 11.4 (r = 0.66) and 12.4 (r = 0.65) km h−1 were significantly associated with field test completion time. We report for the first time that LTs and backpack walk/run economy are major determinants of backpack load-carriage performance in trained soldiers.

Citation

Simpson, R. J., Graham, S. M., Connaboy, C., Clement, R., Pollonini, L., & Florida-James, G. D. (2017). Blood lactate thresholds and walking/running economy are determinants of backpack-running performance in trained soldiers. Applied Ergonomics, 58, 566-572. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2016.04.010

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Apr 19, 2016
Online Publication Date	May 4, 2016
Publication Date	2017-01
Deposit Date	May 2, 2016
Publicly Available Date	May 5, 2017
Journal	Applied Ergonomics
Print ISSN	0003-6870
Electronic ISSN	1872-9126
Publisher	Elsevier
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	58
Pages	566-572
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2016.04.010
Keywords	Load-carriage; Ventilatory threshold; Special forces;
Public URL	http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/id/eprint/9990
Contract Date	May 2, 2016