| Summary: | The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of arm-crank induced priming on subsequent 20 min Functional Threshold Power Test among 11 well-trained male cyclists (18.8 ± 0.9 years; 182 ± 5 cm; 73.0 ± 6.6 kg; <i>V˙</i>O<sub>2max</sub> 67.9 ± 5.1 mL·kg<sup>−1</sup>·min<sup>−1</sup>). Participants completed an incremental test and two maximal performance tests (MPTs) in a randomized order. Warm-up prior to MPT<sub>low</sub> consisted of 20 min aerobic exercise and 25 s high-intensity all-out arm crank effort was added to warm-up in MPT<sub>high</sub>. Constant intensities for the first 17 min of MPT were targeting to achieve a similar relative fatigue according to participants’ physiological capacity before the last 3 min all-out spurt. Final 3 min all-out spurt power was 4.94 ± 0.27 W·kg<sup>−1</sup> and 4.85 ± 0.39 W·kg<sup>−1</sup> in MPT<sub>low</sub> and MPT<sub>high</sub>, respectively (not statistically different: <i>p</i> = 0.116; <i>d</i> = 0.5). Blood lactate [La] levels just before the start were higher (<i>p</i> < 0.001; <i>d</i> = 2.6) in MPT<sub>high</sub> (5.6 ± 0.5 mmol·L<sup>−1</sup>) compared to MPT<sub>low</sub> (1.1 ± 0.1 mmol·L<sup>−1</sup>). According to <i>V</i><i>˙</i>CO<sub>2</sub> and net [La] data, significantly higher anaerobic energy production was detected among MPT<sub>low</sub> condition. In conclusion, priming significantly reduced anaerobic energy contribution but did neither improve nor decrease group mean performance although effects were variable. We suggest priming to have beneficial effects based on previous studies; however, the effects are individual and additional studies are needed to distinguish such detailed effects in single athletes.
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