Effects of repeated sprint training with constant versus incremental rest intervals on the decrement score, blood lactate concentration, and Wingate anaerobic test performance: A pilot study

Nobuyasu Tomabechi^1*Sho Nakazawa²Takayuki Okuhara³Ryo Aoki⁴

• ¹Hokkaido University of Science, Sapporo, Japan
• ²North Asia Daigaku, Akita, Japan
• ³Shimizu Corporation Koutoh Blue Sharks, yokohama, Japan
• ⁴Well-I Inc, Tokyo, Japan

The effects of repeated sprint training with constant rest interval (CRI) versus incremental rest interval (IRI), without matching the total rest duration, on muscle fatigue, glycolytic metabolism and anaerobic work capacity remain unclear. Therefore, we aimed to examine the effects of repeated sprint training with CRI versus IRI on the decrement score, a measure of muscle fatigue, blood lactate concentration, and Wingate anaerobic test performance. We hypothesized that the decrement score, a measure of muscle fatigue, would be significantly lower with repeated sprint training with IRI than with repeated sprint training with CRI, that the blood lactate concentrationwould be equivalent in IRI and CRI, and that Wingate anaerobic test performance would be equally improved. Seventeen males performed nine sessions of repeated sprint training (10 set × 10-s maximal pedaling) within 3 weeks. They were assigned to either the repeated sprint training with CRI (30-s rest interval between sets) or IRI group (30-s rest interval until the fifth set, and then the rest interval was increased by 10-s for each set from the sixth set onwards). The decrement score showed no statistically significant difference between the groups in all sessions. The blood lactate concentration was measured in sessions 1 and 9 and significantly decreased from sessions 1 to 9 in both groups (p < 0.05). However, the blood lactateconcentrationdid not differ significantly between the groups in sessions 1 and 9. From pre-training to post-training, peak power during the Wingate anaerobic test did not increase in either group. The mean power during the Wingate anaerobic test increased significantly in both groups (p < 0.05), but there was no significant difference between the groups. These results suggest that RST with IRI may not provide additional benefits over RST with CRI in untrained young adults.