Aerobic and anaerobic threshold determined by specific test in judo is not correlated with general test

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to compare and correlate the aerobic threshold (THaer), and anaerobic threshold (THanaer) measured during a new single judo-specific incremental test and treadmill test for aerobic demand evaluation. Eight well-trained male competitive judo players (24.3 ± 7.9 years; height of 169.3 ± 6.7 cm; the fat mass of 12.7 ± 3.9%) performed a maximal incremental specific test for judo mimicking the Uchi-komi drills and on the treadmill in different days. There was a difference between specific and general THaer (P = 0.0006) as well as a weak correlation for THaer (r = 0.32; R2 = 0.1; P = 0.2) and THanaer (r = − 0.31; R2 = 0.1; P = 0.12). When correlation was applied to normalized data (percentage of peak load), we observed moderate correlation for THaer (r = 0.76; R2 = 0.58; P = 0.027), but the same result was not observed for THanaer. We conclude that there is a need for THaer and THanaer evaluation through a specific test for Judo.