The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) has proposed equations for estimating metabolic cost of walking and running, which were based on two conditions: 1. that the subject is performing a steady state exercise, and 2. that the oxygen consumption (VO2) has a linear relationship with the workload. The purpose of this study was to verify the concurrent validity of these equations among men, aged 20 to 30 years and who were regularly active, using the spirometry as a criterion measure (AeroSport TEEM-100 gas analyzer). The sample was composed of 36 men. On day 1, they performed a maximal exercise test on a treadmill (ATL 10200, INBRASPORT). The subjects completed a standard 6-stage protocol with different speeds (80.4, 120.6 and 160.8 m.min-1) and grades (0 and 5%), 48 to 96 hours after maximal test. Besides descriptive statistics, other procedures included Pearson's linear correlation, the coefficient of determination, one-way ANOVA and paired t-Student test with level of significance established at 0.05. The analyses were performed with the SPSS package. The results showed that there was VO2 overestimation for both activities (p < 0.05), especially for running, except at 80.4 and 120.6 m.min-1, with no inclination (mean difference from -30 to 20% for walking and 3.2 to 12% for running). The standard error of the estimate (SEE) varied between 1.56 and 3.15 ml O2.kg-1.min-1 and around 3.5 ml O2.kg-1.min-1, for walking and running, respectively. Correlation coefficients were greater than 0.7 for all stages. However, according to Lohman's criteria (1992), the equations were not validated. Therefore, among young men, SEE should be taken into account, due to the fact that the ACSM equations for walking and running overestimate VO2 values.
VO2 prediction equations; oxygen consumption estimation; ACSM
