EFFECTS OF CHRONOLOGICAL AGE AND SEXUAL MATURATION ON THE RUNNING SPEED AT LACTATE THRESHOLD OF CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

Abstract

We examined the effects of the chronological age and sexual maturation on the running speed at lactate threshold (vLL) of children and adolescents. Eighteen boys, divided according to age (GC1: 11.00 to 13.50 and GC2: 13.51 to 15.99 years) and sexual maturation (GB1: levels 1 and 2 and GB2: levels 4 and 5 of pubic hair), performed an incremental treadmill test until exhaustion, with 20-second pauses between the stages of 3 minutes for blood sampling and lactate concentration analysis. The vLL was determined by the Dmax method. There were no signifi cant differences in the vLL (km•h-1) between the groups GC1 (11.5 ± 0.3) vs. GC2 (11.8 ± 0.6) and GB1 (11.6 ± 0.3) vs. GB2 (11.8 ± 0.6). It was concluded that the vLL does not suffer the effects of chronological age and sexual maturation among untrained 11- to 15-year-old boys.