Wearable Lactate Threshold Predicting Device is Valid and Reliable in Runners
Abstract Borges, NR and Driller, MW. Wearable lactate threshold predicting device is valid and reliable in runners. J Strength Cond Res 30(8) 2212 2218, 2016 A commercially available device claiming to be the world's first wearable lactate threshold predicting device (WLT) using near infrared LED technology, has entered the market. The aim of this study was to determine the levels of agreement between the WLT derived lactate threshold workload and traditional methods of lactate threshold (LT) calculation and the interdevice and intradevice reliability of the WLT. Fourteen (7 male, 7 female; mean SD; age: 18 45 years, height: 169 9 cm, mass: 67 13 kg, V[Combining Dot Above]O2max: 53 9 ml*kg 1*min 1) subjects ranging from recreationally active to highly trained athletes completed an incremental exercise test to exhaustion on a treadmill. Blood lactate samples were taken at the end of each 3 minute stage during the test to determine lactate threshold using 5 traditional methods from blood lactate analysis which were then compared against the WLT predicted value. In a subset of the population (n 12) repeat trials were performed to determine both inter reliability and intrareliability of the WLT device. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) found high to very high agreement between the WLT and traditional methods (ICC 0.80) with TEMs and mean differences ranging between 3.9 10.2% and 1.3 9.4% Both interdevice and intradevice reliability resulted in highly reproducible and comparable results (CV 1.2% TEM <0.2 km*h 1, ICC 0.97) This study suggests that the WLT is a practical, reliable, and noninvasive tool for use in predicting LT in runners.
Journal of strength and conditioning research