Oxygen uptake response to switching stairs exercise by non-parametric modeling

Oxygen uptake plays a crucial role in the evaluation of endurance performance during exercise and is extensively utilized for metabolic assessment. This study records the oxygen uptake during the exercise phase (i.e., ascending or descending) of the stair exercise, utilizing an experimental dataset that includes ten participants and covers various exercise periods. Based on the designed experiment protocol, a non-parametric modeling method with kernel-based regularization is generally applied to estimate the oxygen uptake changes during the switching stairs exercise, which closely resembles daily life activities. The modeling results indicate the effectiveness of the non-parametric modeling approach when compared to fixed-order models in terms of accuracy, stability, and compatibility. The influence of exercise duration on estimated fitness reveals that the model of the phase-oxygen uptake system is not time-invariant related to respiratory metabolism regulation and muscle fatigue. Consequently, it allows us to study the humans’ conversion mechanism at different metabolic rates and facilitates the standardization and development of exercise prescriptions.