Do all roads lead to maximal lactate steady state? Systematic reviews and multilevel Bayesian meta-analyses approach

Maximal lactate steady state (MLSS) is defined as the highest intensity of exercise where the balance between the production and removal of lactate in the blood occurs. The MLSS deermination is based on several tests carried out on different days using invasive procedures (i.e. blood sampling), making its use limited in practical situations. Therefore, since the 1980s, several other methods/protocols non-invasive and/or less time-consuming have been used to estimate the MLSS. In addition, much debate in the literature has been done about the validity of estimating MLSS by these methods/tests. Because of the large number of studies and methods/tests and the great variability among them, several meta-analyses will be carried out separately for each type of predictor, as follow: 1- Maximal lactate steady state versus lactate thresholds methods; 2- Maximal lactate steady state versus non-invasive thresholds methods from incremental exercise testing; 3- Maximal lactate steady state versus lactate minimum testing; and 4- Maximal lactate steady state versus performance measures, including time-trials and critical power calculations.