Working capacity of normal children tested on a bicycle ergometer.

Working capacity defined as that work load performed at a minute pulse rate of 170 was determined in 200 school children aged 6 to 16 and in 40 young adults. Working capacity increased gradually with age and was greater in boys than girls at all ages. The range of normal was large. Working capacities of 11- and 12-year-old Winnipeg children in kg./M./min. were 384 for boys and 300 for girls, these values being 19 and 14% below comparable studies from California and Sweden. Working capacities of Winnipeg student nurses averaged 478 kg./M./min., half the value reported for nurses from Sweden.