Establishing a Practical Treadmill Sprint as an Alternative to the Wingate Anaerobic Test

This study examined the validity and reliability of a 30-second running sprint test using two non-motorized treadmills compared to the established Wingate Anaerobic Test. Twenty-four participants completed three sessions in a randomized order on a: (1) manual mode treadmill (Woodway); (2) specialized interval training treadmill (HiTrainer); and (3) Wingate cycle ergometer. In a subset of 15 participants, 2 additional sessions were completed on both treadmills to establish the test-retest reliability. Peak (Woodway: r = 0.68; HiTrainer: r = 0.58; p < 0.003), average (Woodway: r = 0.82; HiTrainer: r = 0.72, p < 0.001), and minimum (Woodway: r = 0.64; HiTrainer: r = 0.42, p < 0.043) speed indices were moderately to very strongly correlated with corresponding Wingate Anaerobic Test outputs and had excellent test-retest reliability (all intraclass correlation coefficients > 0.75). Fatigue index during the Wingate Anaerobic Test (51.20 ± 7.14%) was moderately correlated with the Woodway (32.9 ± 10.9%, r = 0.55, p = 0.005) only. This 30-second running sprint test may be a valid and reliable mode-specific alternative to the Wingate Anaerobic Test.