Alactic capacity and power: reliability and interpretation.

The purpose of this investigation was to determine test-retest reliability for measuring maximal values of alactic capacity (ALCmax) and alactic power (ALPmax). For this, 31 men and 13 women each completed two ALCmax and ALPmax tests. Test-retest correlation coefficients for ALCmax and ALPmax values were 0.78 and 0.90, respectively. In addition, for both variables no significant differences were found between test no. 1 and test no. 2. Mean ALCmax values of 429 and 317 J . kg-1, as well as mean ALPmax values of 3.79 and 3.08 W . kg-1 were found for the men and women, respectively. Both ALCmax and ALPmax values were lower (p less than 0.05) for women than men. However, for the capacity power ratio (ALCmax . ALPmax-1) no difference was found between men and women. A correlation coefficient of r = 0.61 was found between mean values for ALCmax and ALPmax . ALCmax values were discussed as being related to skeletal muscle phosphagen concentrations, and ALPmax values were discussed as being related to phosphagen splitting rate. The observed sex differences were suggested to reflect a greater percent body fat in women than men.