Gender differences in repeated sprint ability

The purpose of this study was to determine the gender differences in repeated sprint ability and physiological and metabolic responses to repeated sprint ability. A total of 40 athletes (20 women, 20 men) who were enrolled in universities basketball, volleyball and football teams participated in this study voluntarily. Repeated sprint ability was determined by a 5x6s cycling repeated sprint test with 24s recovery interval. After the repeated sprint ability tests relative peak power, relative total peak power and percentage of performance decrement were determined as performance indices. As physiological and metabolic responses on the other hand, participants? maximal lactate level, heart rate and ratings of perceived exertion responses were determined. Results of the independent samples t-test indicated significant differences in relative peak power (t(38)=7.825; p= 0.000) and relative total peak power (t(38)=7.880; p = 0.000) between men and women, whereas no significant differences were observed in performance decrements (p>0.05). Results of 5x6s repeated sprint ability test indicated significant differences in maximal lactate responses between men and women (t(38)=3.509; p=0.001), whereas there were no significant differences in maximal heart rate and ratings of perceived exertion (p>0.05). According to the results of 2x5 (gender x sprint number) ANOVA with repeated measures, there were significant gender (F(1,38) = 62.087; p = 0.000) and number of sprints effects (F(4,35)=10.689;p=0.000) in peak power during 5x6s repeated sprint test. Conversely, no significant effects of gender x number of sprints interaction were found in peak power during 5x6s repeated sprint ability test (p>0.05). In addition, there were significant gender (F(1,38) = 54.674; p = 0.000) and number of sprints (F(4,35)=13.415; p=0.000) effects in relative mean peak power during 5x6s repeated sprint test. On the other hand, there was no significant gender x number of sprints interaction were found in relative mean peak power during 5x6s repeated sprint ability (p>0.05). As a conclusion results indicated that men?s peak power, total power and maximal lactate responses were higher than women, whereas, no significant differences were found in performance decrement, maximal heart rate and ratings of perceived exertion values between gender. During repeated sprint test, men?s performance was higher than women?s performance in all sprint numbers and also the highest performance value was recorded during first sprint in men and during the second sprint in women.