Time to retire the raw analysis of individual responses

Bossi, Arthur Henrique

Abstract

This letter critiques the data analysis of a study investigating peak oxygen uptake responses to cycling and running sprint interval training (Digby et al. 2023 J Strength Cond Res, 37(4), e313-e316). While the study effectively demonstrates the specificity principle in the context of sprint interval training, concerns arise regarding the methodology used to categorise participants as responders or non-responders. The letter highlights the disregard for the recommendations of a number of academics advocating for specific experimental designs and statistical analyses to examine inter-individual variability. Furthermore, the reliability of within-individual adaptive responses to training and the potential impact of measurement errors and biological fluctuations are considered. It is suggested that the (non-)responder categorisation adds nothing to the main findings of the study and should be avoided. The importance of using appropriate experimental designs and statistical analyses when investigating inter-individual variability is emphasised. An open-source beta-version simulator is introduced as an educational resource to demonstrate the limitations inherent in the responder counting approach.

Citation

Bossi, A. H. (in press). Time to retire the raw analysis of individual responses. Communications in Kinesiology,

• Journal Article Type: Letter
• Acceptance Date: Mar 29, 2024
• Deposit Date: Apr 11, 2024
• Journal: Communications in Kinesiology
• Print ISSN: 2767-0732
• Publisher: PKP Publishing Services
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/3590710
• Publisher URL: https://storkjournals.org/index.php/cik/index