The e˛ ects of frequency of encouragement on performance during maximal exercise testing

maximal exercise test (V. O2max) on a treadmill without any verbal encouragement. The participants were matched according to their pre-test V. O2max and placed into either a control group or one of three experimental groups. They performed a second exercise test (post-test) 1 week later. During the second test, the control group received no verbal encouragement; the 20 s (20E), 60 s (60E) and 180 s (180E) encouragement groups received verbal encouragement every 20, 60 and 180 s, respectively, beginning with stage 3 of the exercise test. Relative V. O2max, exercise time, blood lactate concentration, respiratory exchange ratio (RER) and ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) were not signi® cantly di˛ erent from the ® rst test to the second test for the control group without verbal encouragement and the 180E group that received infrequent encouragement. Post-test values were signi® cantly higher than pre-test values for the 20E and 60E groups. The post-test values of the 20E group were signi® cantly higher than their pre-test values for relative V. O2max (P < 0.001), exercise time (P < 0.0001), blood lactate concen- tration (P < 0.05), RER (P < 0.01) and RPE (P < 0.0001); this was also the case for the 60E group for relative V. O2max (P < 0.01), blood lactate concentration (P < 0.05), RER (P < 0.05) and RPE (P < 0.05). The results suggest that frequent verbal encouragement (every 20 s and 60 s in the present study) leads to signi® cantly greater maximum e˛ ort in a treadmill test than when no encouragement is given or when the encouragement is infrequent (i.e. every 180 s).