Relationship between the gross efficiency and muscular skin temperature of lower limb in cycling: a preliminary study

In cycling, the gross efficiency (GE, %), defined as the ratio of the power output to the metabolic power (total energy expended according to the time), is one of the main determinants of the performance (Ettema et al. 2009; Jobson et al. 2012). In the literature, the average GE values reported vary from10% to 25% (Faria et al. 2005). In this range, close to 75–90% of metabolic energy is not converted to mechanical energy, but is used to maintain metabolic equilibrium (from adenosine triphosphate hydrolysis) and released as heat. Tomaintain the central temperature close to 37.58C, this produced energy must be dissipated using a thermoregulation process. Infrared thermography measurements can be used to analyse this thermoregulation process and understand the way one part of the energy dissipates (Arfaoui et al. 2012). The aim of this studywas to analyse the relationships that may exist between the GE and the muscular skin temperature of the lower limb in cycling.