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The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of one- and two-leg training on arm and two-leg maximum aerobic power. Seven subjects cycle-trained both legs simultaneously for 30 min.day-1, 4 days.week-1 for 4 weeks. Nine subjects cycle-trained each leg 15 min.day-1, 4 days.week-1 for 4 weeks. Both groups trained at a heart rate equal to that measured at 75% of their two-leg maximum aerobic power. Thus, during each training session the groups performed 30 min of work at the same heart rate intensity. Five subjects served as a non-training control group. Arm and leg maximum oxygen uptake tests were conducted before and after training. Only two-leg training induced significant gains in arm aerobic power (P < 0.0003), whereas both modes of training resulted in significant increases in two-leg aerobic power (P < 0.0008). The data demonstrate that improvements in arm aerobic power were dependent on the quantity of leg muscle mass involved in the training, whereas gains in two-leg aerobic power occurred regardless of whether the legs were trained separately or simultaneously.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of moderate resistance weight training (MRWT) on peak arm aerobic power as measured by arm cranking ergometry. Fourteen sedentary college age males, divided equally into two groups, served as subjects. The seven subjects in the MRWT group completed 12, 1-hr bouts of weight lifting over a 4 week period, exercising on Monday, Wednesday and Friday of each week. Exercise sessions included 3 sets of 10 repetitions of the following lifts: bench press, overhead dumbbell press, dumbbell arm curl, and behind the neck pull down. The remaining seven subjects served as a non-training control group, whose purpose was to account for possible learning effects on the arm ergometer test that could distort the statistical relevance of the aerobic power data. These subjects did not serve as a control for the weight training exercises, as the procedures used to determine muscular strength may produce a modest training effect. Peak arm aerobic power and muscular strength, as measured by the one-repetition maximum for each lift, were determined before and after the training program. The average increase in strength for all lifts combined for the trained group was 20.0%. They also experienced a 13.4% (p < .005) increase in peak arm aerobic power, whereas there was no significant change in this variable for the control group. It is concluded that peak arm aerobic power is enhanced by the changes in muscular strength produced by 4 wks of MRWT.

The purpose of this study was to compare the oxygen cost of running as it relates to speed of running among the following four groups: trained male distance runners, trained female distance runners, untrained but active men and women. Each subject was given a series of treadmill tests during which Vo2 was measured at submaximal work loads. The linear regression equation was utilized to compute the relationship between Vo2 and running speed for each groups. The results indicated that the rate of increase in Vo2 for a given increase in running speed could be represented as a straight line and was the same for all groups (P greater than .05). The trained male runners had a significantly lower Vo2 (P less than .05) than those of the other three groups at any measured speed. The trained females and untrained males had significantly lower Vo2s than the untrained females (P less than .05) at any of the given range of speeds. No significant differences were observed between the untrained mean and trained women (P greater than .05). It was concluded that there were differences in the oxygen cost of running not only between the trained and untrained groups but also between males and females.