Samenvatting

Background: Aerobic (VT1) and anaerobic threshold (VT2) detection requires either expensive gas analysis machines or difficult practise. A company named StepUp Air who have created a wearable Breathing Rate (BR) and Heart Rate (HR) monitor could potentially provide a cheaper solution in.
Objective: The purpose of this study was to find out if it is possible to detect the aerobic (VT1) and anaerobic threshold (VT2) with use of the StepUp Air Wearable Heart Rate (HR)- and Breathing Rate (BR) sensor. As well as to determine the StepUp sensor’s HR validity and reliability. Since StepUp Air BR has already been tested on validity (StepUp Solutions) it will only be tested on reliability.
Methods: 6 healthy male subjects volunteered to perform 2 tests which consisted of an incremental- and an interval cycle ergometer test. V’O2, V’CO2 uptake and BR were measured by a breath-by-breath analyser, while HR was recorded by a Polar wearable HRsensor alongside the StepUp Air (BR, HR) sensor. For reliability testing 1 participant performed a small incremental protocol with a 40 Watt increment every 3 minutes for 12 minutes for a total of 3 times.
Results: Excellent correlations were found between StepUp HR data and Polar in incremental testing (r=0.990-0.998) and interval testing(r=0.991-0.998). Reliability results showed excellent reliability for HR (ICC=0.948), yet a low reliability for BR (ICC=0.295). Excellent correlation (r=0.942) was found between mean V’O2 values derived from StepUp BR data at the point of disproportionate increase and mean V'O2 values from gas analysis machines’ automated VT2 calculations during incremental testing. Not enough results were found for VT2 during interval testing to perform statistical analysis. No results were found for VT1.
Conclusion: Following this method, it can be concluded that the StepUp sensor is capable of calculating VT2 during incremental testing and therefore providing a cheaper alternative for VT2 determination. HR results showed to be valid and reliable, while BR results suggested values to be unreliable.