Historical Remarks on the Development of the Aerobic-anaerobic Threshold Up to 1966

During the years 1957 to 1963, we introduced the concept of the onset of anaerobic metabolism to measure cardiopulmonary and peripheral aerobic performance capacity. On the basis of bicycle and crank ergometer work with load increments of 3 min duration, we described a point at which the pulmonary ventilation (VE) increases at a greater rate than O2 uptake (VO2). Because the changes of the arterial blood lactate (Laa) and VE coincide we defined this point as the "point of the optimal ventilatory efficiency," identical with the "O2 endurance performance limit," later called "anaerobic threshold" by Wasserman et al.