Oxygen cost of running in trained and untrained men and women.

The purpose of this study was to compare the oxygen cost of running as it relates to speed of running among the following four groups: trained male distance runners, trained female distance runners, untrained but active men and women. Each subject was given a series of treadmill tests during which Vo2 was measured at submaximal work loads. The linear regression equation was utilized to compute the relationship between Vo2 and running speed for each groups. The results indicated that the rate of increase in Vo2 for a given increase in running speed could be represented as a straight line and was the same for all groups (P greater than .05). The trained male runners had a significantly lower Vo2 (P less than .05) than those of the other three groups at any measured speed. The trained females and untrained males had significantly lower Vo2s than the untrained females (P less than .05) at any of the given range of speeds. No significant differences were observed between the untrained mean and trained women (P greater than .05). It was concluded that there were differences in the oxygen cost of running not only between the trained and untrained groups but also between males and females.