Interaction of Factors Determining Critical Power

Goulding, Richie P and Marwood, Simon (2023) Interaction of Factors Determining Critical Power. Sports Medicine, 53 (3). pp. 595-613. ISSN 0112-1642

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Abstract

The physiological determinants of high-intensity exercise tolerance are important for both elite human performance and morbidity, mortality and disease in clinical settings. The asymptote of the hyperbolic relation between external power and time to task failure, critical power, represents the threshold intensity above which systemic and intramuscular metabolic homeostasis can no longer be maintained. After ~ 60 years of research into the phenomenon of critical power, a clear understanding of its physiological determinants has emerged. The purpose of the present review is to critically examine this contemporary evidence in order to explain the physiological underpinnings of critical power. Evidence demonstrating that alterations in convective and diffusive oxygen delivery can impact upon critical power is first addressed. Subsequently, evidence is considered that shows that rates of muscle oxygen utilisation, inferred via the kinetics of pulmonary oxygen consumption, can influence critical power. The data reveal a clear picture that alterations in the rates of flux along every step of the oxygen transport and utilisation pathways influence critical power. It is also clear that critical power is influenced by motor unit recruitment patterns. On this basis, it is proposed that convective and diffusive oxygen delivery act in concert with muscle oxygen utilisation rates to determine the intracellular metabolic milieu and state of fatigue within the myocytes. This interacts with exercising muscle mass and motor unit recruitment patterns to ultimately determine critical power.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information and Comments:	Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The final version is available from: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-022-01805-w
Faculty / Department:	Faculty of Human and Digital Sciences > School of Health and Sport Sciences
Depositing User:	Simon Marwood
Date Deposited:	20 Feb 2024 16:42
Last Modified:	20 Feb 2024 16:42
URI:	https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/4146

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