Finally, researchers, physiologists and clinicians should keep in mind that the primary goal of the phase is not simply to achieve a V̇O2 similar to the incremental phase.
In the perfective event, the incremental phase E1 corresponds to the deontic event; the resultant state E2 corresponds to the projected (resultative) future event.
After 10 min of passive recovery, an effort at one stage higher (20 km h−1) than the last stage completed during the incremental phase is performed directly (a) or preceded by a "warm-up" corresponding to 2 min at 50% and 1 min at 70% of the maximal velocity reached during the incremental phase (b).
Table 1 Characteristics of previous studies that employed the verification phase to confirm V̇O2max attained during an incremental test to exhaustion Reference Incremental phase Recovery phase Verification phase Verification during the same session?
After submitting 52 well-trained distance runners to an incremental treadmill test and a second bout to exhaustion at an intensity 30% higher than the incremental phase, Hawkins and colleagues [32] found no difference between V̇O2max in both tests.
The V̇O2max measured during the verification phase is then compared to that of the incremental phase and if both do not differ, based on a given criterion, the test is considered valid and V̇O2max as true.
a represents a valid test, while b represents a test were verification phase maximal oxygen uptake (V̇O2max) was higher than that reached during incremental phase, consequently, an invalid test.
The diagonal matrix P N ≜ diag { 1, e j 2 Π N ε, …, e j 2 Π ( N − 1 ) N ε } represents the incremental phase offset caused by CFO.
Finally, as already mentioned, researchers, physiologists and clinicians must keep in mind that the main purpose of the verification phase is not simply to achieve a V̇O2 similar to the incremental phase, but to create a platform that enables a higher V̇O2 to be reached if it has not been reached previously.
The exercise test consisted of (1) 5 min of rest, (2) 4 min with real "zero" workload, obtained by means of a system which moves the ergometer freewheel at 60 revolutions per minute (rpm), (3) the incremental phase, (4) 1 min active recovery period, and (5) 5 min passive recovery period.
