420 series

Participants’ height, body mass, resting heart rate, and blood pressure were measured during the preliminary visit. Post-void nude body mass and height were respectively measured using a digital scale (Bx-300+, Atron Systems, NJ, USA) and a wall stadiometer. After 3 min of seated rest, heart rate and blood pressure were taken with a digital sphygmomanometer (Welch Allyn 420 series, NY, USA). The equation developed by Tanaka et al. [16 (link)] was used to compute the estimated maximal heart rate.

During the preliminary visit, the height of the participants, wearing only socks, was measured to the nearest 0.5 cm using a wall stadiometer, post-void nude BM with a digital scale (BX-300+, Altron Systems, Mount Pleasant, SC, USA, ±20 g), fat mass and FFM with the dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry technology (Lunar Prodigy, GE Healthcare, Chicago, IL, USA) and blood pressure and resting heart rate using a digital sphygmomanometer (Welch-Allyn 420 series, Skaneateles Falls, NY, USA) after the participants remained seated for a period of 2 min. Finally, $\dot{\mathrm{V}}$ O_2max was determined with a metabolic analyzer (Cosmed Quark CPET, Cosmed, Chicago, IL, USA) calibrated according to the manufacturer instructions using an incremental running protocol on a motorized treadmill. Participants started walking at 5 km/h with 0% grade for 1 min, with further increments of 1 km/h occurring every 1 min until the participants could not continue. The $\dot{\mathrm{V}}$ O_2max was confirmed when at least two of those criteria were reached: (1) respiratory exchange ratio ≥ 1.1, (2) theoretical maximal heart rate (220-age), (3) $\dot{\mathrm{V}}$ O₂ plateau concurrent to an increase in running speed [17 (link)].

During their first visit to the laboratory, participants underwent measurements of their post-void body mass with a floor scale (±20 g, BX-300+, Atron Systems, West Caldwell, NJ, USA), height with a wall stadiometer, resting blood pressure and heart rate after a 3 min rest period with a digital sphygmomanometer (Welch Allyn 420 series, Skaneateles Falls, NY, USA) and body composition with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (Lunar Prodigy, GE Healthcare, Chicago, IL, USA). Maximal oxygen consumption ( $$\dot{\mathrm{V}}$$ O_2max) was measured on a motorized treadmill (model TMX428 Trackmaster, Newton, KS, USA) using an expired gas analysis system (Cosmed Quark CPET, Cosmed, Chicago, IL, USA) that had been calibrated with gases of known concentration. The attainment of $$\dot{\mathrm{V}}$$ O_2max was confirmed using the ACSM criteria [35 ].