Muscle-damaging exercise 48 h prior to a maximal incremental exercise treadmill test reduces time to exhaustion: is it time to reconsider our pretest procedures?

Pretest guidelines typically stipulate that no exercise should be performed 48 h prior to a maximal incremental exercise [Formula: see text] test. However, no study has specifically investigated if this timescale alters key outcome variables associated with [Formula: see text]. Twenty apparently healthy males split into two equal groups performed [Formula: see text] during three visits (visits 1 - [Formula: see text]EXP1, 2 - [Formula: see text]EXP2 and 4 - [Formula: see text]EXP3). The experimental group only, performed muscle-damaging exercise during visit 3. From [Formula: see text]EXP2 to [Formula: see text]EXP3 average time to exhaustion (TTE) decreased by 45 s (9%) (p < 0.01), maximum blood lactate decreased by 1.2 mmol/L (11%) (p = 0.03), and perceived readiness decreased by 8 mm (18%) (p = 0.01). There were no changes in any [Formula: see text] variables in the control group (p ≥ 0.37). Performing [Formula: see text] 48 h following muscle-damaging exercise impairs specific, but not all, physiological outcome variables.