Abstract des Autors

In the following study a specific stress test on the treadmill for competitive walkers will be introduced. With a constant gradient of 1%, the speed of the treadmill was initially increased stepwise by 1.5 km/h after every 3 min from 9 to 13.5 km/h. Thereafter, the stress intensity was increased by raising the gradient of the treadmill stepwise by 3% while the speed remained constant at 13.5 km/h. The results of the treadmill tests from 14 competitive walkers of national level were compared to those obtained from submaximal field tests - comprising 4 1000 m intervals at speeds corresponding to those of the treadmill test - in an indoor hall as well as an outdoor 400 m lane. The resulting data (HR, VO2, lactate) show that this stress test on the treadmill provides a continuous increase in work loads until subjective exhaustion. In comparison to the field tests, almost identical blood lactate levels were obtained from the stress test so that a direct application of the laboratory results to training appears feasible. Verf.-Referat