A comparison of two Wingate anaerobic test software packages

A common data collection system for Wingate anaerobic testing (WAnT) is provided by Cranlea. More recently Monark have provided Wingate software for use with their ergometers. The aim of this study was to compare upper body WAnT performance measures provided by the two systems. Following institutional ethical approval, eighteen participants volunteered for the study (Male, n = 11, Age mean 26.1, s = 9.2, Female, n = 8, Age mean 22.6, s = 3.7), Each participant undertook three WAnT using a table mounted cycle ergometer (Monark 894E, Sweden) as part of familiarisation for a larger study. All tests involved a 4% body mass resistive load with a minimum of 24-h between tests. Prior to each tests participants undertook a 5-min warm-up (60 rev.min-1) including three 3-4 s practise sprints. Corrected peak power (PP; over 1 s duration for Cranlea; over one pedal revolution for Monark), mean power (MP; over 24 s), mean cadence and time to PP were recorded using Cranlea Wingate v4.0 and Monark v2.2 software. Data were analysed by paired t-tests and Pearsons correlation coefficient. There were no differences between Monark and Cranlea outputs for PP (546 s = 264, 517 s= 239 W, respectively, P = 0.240, ES = 1.42), MP (P = 0.204, ES = 1.54), Mean cadence (P = 0.406, ES = 1.00) or time to PP (P = 0.285, ES = 0.109), The range of PP values (Monark; 137 – 946 W and Cranlea; 179 – 1000 W) reflected the range of values reported in the literature. Mean differences between software for PP and MP were 33 (s = 46) and 22 W (s = 14). The results of this study suggest that either method of measuring upper body WAnT variables can be used.