Influence of exercise mode and maximal lactate-steady-state concentration on the validity of OBLA to predict maximal lactate-steady-state in active individuals

The aim of this study was to analyze the effects of exercise mode on the validity of onset of blood lactate accumulation (OBLA—3.5-mM fixed blood lactate concentration) to predict the work-rate at maximal lactate steady state (MLSS_work-rate). Eleven recreationally active males (21.3 ± 2.9 years, 72.8 ± 6.7 kg, 1.78 ± 0.1 m) performed randomly incremental tests to determine OBLA (stage duration of 3 min), and 2 to 4 constants work-rate exercise tests to directly determine maximal lactate steady state parameters on a cycle-ergometer and treadmill. For both exercise modes, the OBLA was significantly correlated to MLSS_work-rate, (cycling: r = 0.81 p = 0.002; running: r = 0.94, p < 0.001). OBLA (156.2 ± 41.3 W) was lower than MLSS_work-rate (179.6 ± 26.4 W) during cycling exercise (p = 0.007). However, for running exercise, there was no difference between OBLA (3.2 ± 0.6 m s⁻¹) and MLSS_work-rate (3.1 ± 0.4 m s⁻¹). The difference between OBLA and MLSS_work-rate on the cycle-ergometer (r = 0.86; p < 0.001) and treadmill (r = 0.64; p = 0.048) was significantly related to the specific MLSS. We can conclude that the validity of OBLA on predicting MLSS_work-rate is dependent on exercise mode and that its disagreement is related to individual variations in MLSS.