Maximal accumulated oxygen deficit: a brief historical and methodological review

Abstract

The total capacity for anaerobic ATP resynthesis (AC) seems to be fundamental to the performance in sport modalities with short duration and high intensity. Thus, several methods were suggested for the measurement of AC, but the maximal accumulated oxygen deficit (MAOD) had been considered a more appropriated method. Therefore, the objective of this study was to review systematically how the MAOD method was improved along the years. Summarizing, the validity and reproducibility of MAOD were presented by scientific literature from different perspectives. However, this method’s measurements can be slower and more expensive. Therefore, it would be valuable if the future studies were performed aiming to propose and to validate alternative methods to MAOD estimation, which should employ physiological variables that are indirectly associated to aerobic metabolism as the heart rate. Thus, these methods could be useful to facilitate this measurement to physical education teachers and other professionals of correlated areas.