ABSTRACT
In a longitudinal study, Armstrong and Welsman (2001) reported that, over the age range 12-17 years, peak power, as determined on the Wingate anaerobic test, increased by about 120 per cent in boys and 66 per cent in girls, whereas increases in peak V˙O2 were somewhat less, at about 70 per cent and 50 per cent for boys and girls respectively. These data indicate that there are age-and sex-related changes in anaerobic and aerobic power which are not synchronous and suggest that both sexes may experience a more marked increase in anaerobic metabolism than aerobic metabolism as they move from childhood, through adolescence and into young adulthood. However, metabolic profiles estimated from exercise tests are the sum of numerous factors and do not provide the quality and specificity of data required to tease out changes in exercise metabolism during growth and maturation.
