IJCS | Volume 31, Nº4, July / August 2018

319 Miguel Mendes Cardiopulmonary exercise test to train soccer players? Int J Cardiovasc Sci. 2018;31(4)318-319 Editorial This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License The consideration of COP, a parameter that occurs before the anaerobic threshold, to assess or guide the training of athletes, namely soccer players, raises doubts because the most intense and eventually discriminative efforts of soccer players occur at intensities close to the maximal effort. Psotta et al., 4 studying young soccer players, have reported that the ability to perform sets of 10 repeated sprints can be predicted based on the mean velocity obtained in a 20-m sprint and in a 2-km race, suggesting the need for high-level anaerobic and aerobic abilities to properly respond to the demands of the game. Edwards et al. 5 have reported that training brings the values of oxygen consumption at the anaerobic threshold and at the ventilatory threshold close to the values of oxygen consumption at peak effort, but it does not change the latter, as if the maximal oxygen consumption had already been optimized. The values of oxygen consumption at the anaerobic threshold and at maximal effort specifically reflect the ability to perform aerobic efforts. The COP should be studied in the context of sports training to assess whether it identifies athletes with excellent aerobic capacity at submaximal level or whether it can assess and monitor training during the competitive season. Regarding the possibility of parameters provided by an incremental and maximal CPX being capable of identifying the ability to sustain and repeat sudden and intense efforts in anaerobiosis and to recover rapidly, it seems more useful to focus on the parameters present close to the end of the exercise test, after overcoming the 2 nd ventilatory threshold, which precedes the phase of exhaustion and defines the intensity of the effort the individual will be able tomaintain during a fewminutes, being useful to consider the load at which it occurs (e. g., the treadmill velocity). In addition, it might be useful to study how long an individual can sustain exercise at high lactatemia levels (e.g. > 6 - 8 mmol) or high respiratory quotient (> 1.10), considering the training of soccer players or other sports practitioners with similar physical requirements. This is a very interesting and challenging field of work and study for the scientific community, which continues committed to produce knowledge that might contribute to enhance the performance of athletes with access to new technologies. 1. Stølen T, Chamari K, Castagna C, Wisløff U. Physiology of soccer an update. Sports Med. 2005;35(6):501-36. 2. Souza e Silva CG, Castro CL, France JF, Bottino A, Myers J, Araujo CG. Ponto ótimo cardiorrespiratório em futebolistas profissionais:uma nova variável submáxima de exercício. Int J Cardiovasc Sci. 2018;[online].ahead print.PP.0-0 3. Ramos PS, Araujo CG. Cardiorespiratory optimal point during exercise testing as a predictor of all-cause mortality. Rev Port Cardiol. 2017;36(4):261-9. 4. Psotta R, Bun V, Hendl J, Tenney D, Heller J. Is repeated-sprint ability of soccer players predictable from field-based or laboratory physiological tests? J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 2011;51(1):18-25. 5. Edwards AM, Clark N, Macfadyen AM. Lactate and ventilatory thresholds reflect the training status of professional soccer players where maximum aerobic power is unchanged. J Sports Sci Med. 2003;2:23-9. References