APPLICABILITY OF RELATIVE OXYGEN CONSUMPTION FOR EVALUATION OF FUNCTIONAL WORK CAPACITY IN ADOLESCENT ATHLETES

The evaluation of the absolute (VO2peak) and relative (VO2peak/kg) values of the peak oxygen consumption is an essen-tial component of exercise testing in athletes. However, according to many researchers, VO2peak/kg values in adolescent athletes do not provide sufficiently reliable information to assess their functional work capacity. The present research aims to investigate the applicability of relative values of oxygen consumption for accurate estimation of functional work capacity in adolescent athletes. The research subjects were twelve basketball players from a junior club team participating in the state championship of Bulgaria. They carried out two maximum bicycle exercise tests with a twelve-month period between the two tests. We analyzed the registered absolute and relative peak power output (Wattpeak, Wattpeak/kg) and peak oxygen consumption. It was established that there was a significant increase in average Wattpeak (8.5%), Wattpeak/kg (6.2%), and VO2peak (3.7%) during the second test as compared to the first one. At the same time, in all subjects, no signif-icant increase in VO2peak/kg (average of 0.9%) was registered. This result is associated with the athletes’ increased body weight (average of 2.7%) during the second test. Based on the lack of VO2peak/kg dynamics compared to the significant increase of Wattpeak, Wattpeak/kg, VO2peak, it can be concluded that the isolated use of VO2peak/kg for functional capacity analysis may result in significant errors in estimating the functional work capacity of adolescent athletes.