Abstract
In 1973 Wasserman, Whipp, Koyal, and Beaver published a groundbreaking study
titled “Anaerobic threshold and respiratory gas analysis during
exercise”. At that time, respiratory gas analysis and laboratory
computers had evolved such that more advanced respiratory exercise physiology
studies were possible. The initial publications from this group on the onset of
anaerobic metabolism in cardiac patients, the first breath-by-breath
VO2 system, the first description of the anaerobic threshold, and
then later new methods to detect the anaerobic threshold have been and continue
to be highly cited. In fact, their 1973 anaerobic threshold paper is the sixth
and their 1986 paper is the second most cited paper ever published in the
Journal of Applied Physiology. The anaerobic threshold concept has also
generated>5500 publications with the rates increasing over time. The
publication of two papers that help to refute the “anaerobic”
explanation for this phenomenon had no effect on the rates of citations of the
original anaerobic threshold papers or the number of anaerobic threshold papers
published since. Thus, despite now substantial evidence refuting the proposed
anaerobic mechanisms underlying this phenomenon, these papers continue to be
highly influential in the discipline of exercise physiology and, perhaps even
more explicitly, clinical exercise physiology.
Key words
anaerobic threshold - lactate threshold - ventilatory breakpoint - McArdle’s disease
