The bicycle ergometer for muscle power testing.

The force-velocity relationship implies that the faster a contracting muscle is permitted to shorten, the weaker it becomes or the slower a contracting muscle is permitted to shorten, the stronger it becomes until it reaches maximal isometric tension. The relationship is hyperbolic for a denervated muscle but is inverse and linear for functionally innervated muscle groups. When the force of contraction is multiplied by the velocity of contraction, a power production curve is obtained. The purposes of the study were to examine the force-velocity relationship on a standard bicycle ergometer, to deduce a power-velocity curve, to compare the results of young men and women and to see if the measures were reproducible. Fifty-eight young men and women volunteered for the study. Testing consisted of pedalling as quickly as possible for five seconds at resistance settings from 2 to 7-kg. In order to evaluate the reproducibility of the scores, retesting was done one hour later. It was shown that the relationship between the resistance settings and the number of revolutions completed by the male and female subjects was inverse and linear. The higher the resistance setting was, the larger was the difference in the scores of the young men and women. When a power curve was derived for each group, a peak power was only identified in the female subjects and this was encountered at a 5-kg resistance setting. The scores obtained at a resistance setting of 5 and 7 kg for female and male subjects respectively showed the best reproducibility. The bicycle ergometer may not be used as an alternative but as a complementary tool to an isokinetic dynamometer.