Are RCP and Critical Power Equivalent? The Issue of Mean Response Time Response (Letter)

We thank Boone and Bourgois (1) for their interest in our recent article (4). Their comments are interesting and add value to the ongoing debate on whether the respiratory compensation point (RCP) is a valid surrogate for the critical power (CP). We agree that the estimation and subsequent adjustment of the mean response time (MRT), to account for the delay in the pulmonary O2 uptake kinetic response inherent to incremental exercise, may, to some extent, explain the poor measurement agreement commonly observed between the RCP and the CP. The relatively poor reproducibility and protocol dependency of the MRT (2), coupled with ...
View more >We thank Boone and Bourgois (1) for their interest in our recent article (4). Their comments are interesting and add value to the ongoing debate on whether the respiratory compensation point (RCP) is a valid surrogate for the critical power (CP). We agree that the estimation and subsequent adjustment of the mean response time (MRT), to account for the delay in the pulmonary O2 uptake kinetic response inherent to incremental exercise, may, to some extent, explain the poor measurement agreement commonly observed between the RCP and the CP. The relatively poor reproducibility and protocol dependency of the MRT (2), coupled with the apparent nonlinear MRT dynamics for external work rates incurred above the gas-exchange threshold (GET) (3), are factors that may affect the accuracy/confidence of the MRT estimate obtained during incremental exercise.
View less >