The influence of aerobic and anaerobic components of muscular endurance on the lower limbs, on sprint ability while under conditions of muscular fatigue, was investigated. Fifteen track and field athletes (400 m sprinters, decathletes and middle distance runners) participated in the study in which running and sprinting movements at respective points (360 m and 50 m) along two distance conditions (400 m and 80 m, respectively), were filmed by high-speed video camera. Running speeds at each point were computed from the film analysis. The running speed at 360 m point was defined as the speed under fatigue, while the running speed at the 50m point was defined as the maximal speed. Further, the rate between speed under fatigue and maximal speed was defined as %Max. Speed. Maximal O₂ intake, O₂ debt and isokinetic muscular endurance were measured.
The results were summarized as follows :
1) Oxygen debt showed significant correlation with the average speed during 400m running (r=0.546 ; p<0.05), but not with the speed under fatigue (r=0.388 ; p>0.05) .
2) Speed under fatigue was positively correlated with muscular endurance of hip flexion and extension (r=0.683 ; p<0.01, r=0.572 ; p<0.05) .
3) Percent Max. Speed was negatively correlated with the maximal speed (r = -0.643 ; p <0.01) and positively correlated with the muscular endurance of hip flexion and extension, and knee flexion (r=0.640 ; p <0.05, r=0.517 ; p<0.05, r=0.646 ; p<0.01) .
These results suggest that; raising %Max. Speed to improve the muscular endurance of lower limbs and, to improve aerobic ability by developing the number of capillaries in the muscle, is important.