Original articles   

The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 2001 June;41(2):177-82

Copyright © 2002 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

V̇O2max, ventilatory and anaerobic thresholds in rhythmic gymnasts and young female dancers

Baldari C., Guidetti L.

From the University Institute of Motor Sciences, Rome, Italy

Background. This ­study exam­ines the fit­ness lev­el of a rhyth­mic gym­nasts ­group and a ­young ­female clas­si­cal danc­ers ­group.
Methods. Aerobic pow­er (˙VO2max), indi­vid­u­al ven­til­a­to­ry (IVT) and anaer­o­bic thresh­olds (IAT) ­were ­assessed in 12 ­elite rhyth­mic gym­nasts, ­eight ­elite bal­let danc­ers and 12 sed­en­tary ­female sub­jects in the ­same age ­range (13-16 yrs). The ˙VO2max, IVT and IAT ­were ­assessed dur­ing a con­tin­u­ous incre­men­tal run­ning tread­mill ­test.
Results. At IVT and IAT the V.O2max ­expressed in ml·kg-l·min-l was sig­nif­i­cant­ly dif­fer­ent ­between the ­three ­groups of sub­jects. The high­est val­ues ­were ­found in gym­nasts (30.8±2.6 for IVT and 43.8±3.5 for IAT) fol­lowed by the val­ues of danc­ers (21.7±2.8 for IVT and 30.5±3.1 for IAT) and con­trols (15.6±2.0 for IVT and 20.6±1.7 for IAT). When the ˙˙VO2max was ­expressed in per­cent of ˙VO2max, the val­ues at IAT ­were sig­nif­i­cant­ly dif­fer­ent ­between all ­groups (gym­nasts: 84.9±0.7; danc­ers: 64.0±4.1; con­trols: 59.7±2.4) ­while at IVT no dif­fer­ence was ­found ­between danc­ers and con­trols (45.6±4.1 and 45.2±16, respec­tive­ly). At max­i­mal ­effort ˙VO2 was sig­nif­i­cant­ly high­er ­both in gym­nasts and danc­ers (51.7±4.4 and 47.5±3.0 ml·kg-l·min-l, respec­tive­ly), ­than in con­trols (34.5±2.5 ml·kg-l·min-l).
Conclusions. Although ˙VO2max was sim­i­lar ­between gym­nasts and danc­ers, ˙VO2 val­ues at NT and IAT ­were ­able to dis­crim­i­nate the high­er lev­el of fit­ness in gym­nasts ­with ­respect to danc­ers.