Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2000 Jun;29(6):373-86.
doi: 10.2165/00007256-200029060-00001.

The effect of endurance training on parameters of aerobic fitness

A M Jones  1 , H Carter
Affiliations
Review

The effect of endurance training on parameters of aerobic fitness

A M Jones et al. Sports Med. 2000 Jun.

Abstract

Endurance exercise training results in profound adaptations of the cardiorespiratory and neuromuscular systems that enhance the delivery of oxygen from the atmosphere to the mitochondria and enable a tighter regulation of muscle metabolism. These adaptations effect an improvement in endurance performance that is manifest as a rightward shift in the 'velocity-time curve'. This shift enables athletes to exercise for longer at a given absolute exercise intensity, or to exercise at a higher exercise intensity for a given duration. There are 4 key parameters of aerobic fitness that affect the nature of the velocity-time curve that can be measured in the human athlete. These are the maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max), exercise economy, the lactate/ventilatory threshold and oxygen uptake kinetics. Other parameters that may help determine endurance performance, and that are related to the other 4 parameters, are the velocity at VO2max (V-VO2max) and the maximal lactate steady state or critical power. This review considers the effect of endurance training on the key parameters of aerobic (endurance) fitness and attempts to relate these changes to the adaptations seen in the body's physiological systems with training. The importance of improvements in the aerobic fitness parameters to the enhancement of endurance performance is highlighted, as are the training methods that may be considered optimal for facilitating such improvements.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1980;12(5):357-60 - PubMed
    1. J Physiol. 1993 Sep;469:459-78 - PubMed
    1. Exerc Sport Sci Rev. 1996;24:35-71 - PubMed
    1. Br J Sports Med. 1998 Mar;32(1):39-43 - PubMed
    1. Metabolism. 1974 Jun;23(6):531-42 - PubMed
-