Influence of cycling history on the ventilatory response to cycle-ergometry in humans: A role for respiratory memory?

Abstract

The ventilatory (V' E) mechanisms subserving stability of alveolar and arterial PCO2 (PACO2, PaCOs2) during moderate exercise (< lactate threshold, θL) remain controversial. As long-term modulation has been argued to be an important contributor to this control process, we proposed that subjects with no experience of cycling (NEx) might provide insight into this issue. With no exercise familiarization, 9 sedentary NEx subjects and 9 age-, sex-, and activity-matched controls (C) who had cycled regularly for recreational purposes since childhood completed a square-wave (6-min stage) cycle-ergometry test: 10 W-WR1-WR2-WR 1-10 W; WR1 range 25-45 W, WR2 range 50-90 W. WRs were subsequently confirmed to