Development and Assessment of the Monark Cycle Ergometer for Anaerobic Muscular Exercise

This report describes the system developed by this Institute to measure anaerobic power production using the protocol developed at the Wingate Institute in Israel. This test consists of 30 seconds of maximal cycling or cranking exercise against a resistance determined according to the body weight of the subject. The system consists of a modified Monark cycle ergometer, a universal counter to monitor flywheel revolutions, and a desktop computer for timing, control, and data processing. The modification of the ergometer for the instantaneous application of resistance is presented. In addition, the methods used to measure pedal revolutions and to calibrate the ergometer, and the analysis of the forces acting on the flywheel are described. Finally, a description of the procedure used in the performance of the Wingate test and a summary of the actual data output are presented.