IJCS | Volume 31, Nº4, July / August 2018

DOI: 10.5935/2359-4802.20180042 318 EDITORIAL International Journal of Cardiovascular Sciences. 2018;31(4)318-319 Mailing Address: Miguel Mendes Hospital de Santa Cruz - Av. Prof. Reynaldo dos Santos, s/n. 2790-134 - Carnaxide, Portugal. E-mail: miguel.mendes.md@gmail.com Can Cardiopulmonary Exercise Test Contribute to Train Soccer Players? Miguel Mendes Hospital de Santa Cruz/Centro Hospitalar de Lisboa Ocidental, Lisbon - Portugal Exercise; Football / trends; Spirometry / methods; Athletic Performance. Keywords Soccer, which draws crowds and moves huge sums of money, has not been dissociated from science, being frequently approached in studies conducted by the academy or upon request of technical teams, aimed at optimizing the sports outcomes. A training plan is used to prepare for the soccer competitionandcomprisespurelyphysical, psychological, technical (p. ex.: pass, dribble, feint, leaps) and tactical components. In the preseason and during the competitive season, coaches measure andmonitor different variables of the training. The players of a soccer team, although having the same baseline physical fitness, face different physical challenges depending on their field position in the game. From the goalkeeper, exceptional capacity of instantaneous reaction, impulsion, flexibility andmotor coordination, particularly of the upper limbs, are required. Field soccer players, however, must have good baseline aerobic conditioning associated with the capacity to repeatedly sprint during 2 to 4 seconds, every 90 seconds, covering distances that can range from5m to 40m, in the case of lateral defenders and attackers, or be shorter, in the case of central-defenders and midfielders. During the 90 minutes of the game, elite soccer players walk or run approximately 10 km at a mean intensity similar to that achieved at the anaerobic threshold, withmultiple explosive efforts, namely sprints, corresponding to as much as 11% of the distance covered during the game. 1 The intermittent nature of soccer games requires the use of three types of energy substrates. The aerobic pathway supports the periods of walking or slow running (90% of game duration), while phosphocreatine and the anaerobic pathway are the sources of energy used in repeated explosive efforts, frequently carried out at a velocity superior to that achieved at the maximal effort of exercise testing and that the athlete will be able to repeat only after properly restoring the different energy substrates to the muscles. The study by Souza e Silva et al., 2 published in this IJCS issue, assessed, for the first time in athletes, the cardiorespiratory optimal point (COP) determined in a maximal cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPX), performed on a treadmill according to the ramp protocol in 198 soccer players of a major team of a Carioca club, between January 2005 and December 2016. They concluded that COP values do not differ according to the soccer players’ field positions. The COP is the minimum value of the ventilatory equivalent for oxygen (ratio between ventilation per minute and oxygen consumption: VE/VO 2 ) during a CPX. It represents the effort with the lowest ventilation per liter of oxygen consumed, considered the best integration point between respiration and circulation. The COP occurs at the initial phase of the CPX, at 30 - 50% of maximal oxygen consumption, correlated with neither maximal oxygen consumption nor anaerobic threshold. It is easily determined in incremental tests, independently of the observer or the athlete’s motivation, seeming useful for the assessment of healthy or ill individuals unable to achieve their maximum effort because of physical, psychological or other limitations. This newparameter has shown an inverse relationship with all-causemortality of healthy and ill individuals aged 40 to 85 years, as well as an ability to estimate mortality. 3 In the discussion of their article, Souza e Silva et al. 2 hypothesized that the low COP values of those elite soccer players could represent a physiological advantage for sports practice, which, although logical, lacks confirmation.