ABSTRACT
Power output during multiple cycle ergometer sprinting is impaired when the recovery duration between bouts is short (30s) (Wootton and Williams, 1983). The ability to reproduce short bursts of maximal running exercise is of great importance in the ‘multiple sprint’ sports such as rugby, soccer and hockey. Until recently there has been no acceptable method for examining sprint running in the laboratory. A non-motorized treadmill has been modified for this purpose (Lakomy, 1984) and this has allowed the laboratory examination of both sprint running performance and of the metabolic responses to sprinting (Cheetham et al., 1984, 1986). The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of recovery duration and the preceding number of exercise bouts on the power output during sprint running.
