Reliability and sensitivity of the 6 and 30 second Wingate tests in physically active males and females

BACKGROUND: Despite widespread use of 6 and 30 second Wingate anaerobic tests (WAnT), performance reliability of these protocols over repeated trials in active males and females has not been determined. OBJECTIVE: This study assessed the performance reliability and test sensitivity of the 6 s and 30 s WAnT. METHODS: Twenty physically active participants (10 males and 10 females) completed a 6 s and 30 s WAnT against 7.5% body mass resistance on four occasions. RESULTS: Peak power output (PPO) and mean power output (MPO) did not differ across trials for either gender. Male PPO in both sprint durations demonstrated random variation (standard error of measurement (SEM)) ≤ 3.9% in all between-trials comparisons. For MPO, SEM was ≤ 2.9% in all comparisons. For females, random variation in PPO in both sprint durations was lower in trial 3-4 than earlier pairs of trials. MPO between trials in the 6 s sprint was variable, with the smallest variation between trials 1-2. For the 30 s sprint, MPO was more stable across trials. Across all four trials, only MPO in the 30 s test for males displayed good test sensitivity. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, familiarisation may not be required to establish consistent performance in physically active males or females during the 6 and 30 s WAnT. Furthermore, general marginal test sensitivity in both tests and genders suggests that results of WAnT in physically active participants should not be used to investigate the genuine effect of an intervention.