Cardio calculator
Wingate test calculator
Turn a 30-second all-out effort into peak power, mean power, and a fatigue index — absolute and per kilogram. Free, instant, no sign-up.
Peak and mean fail for different reasons — the coach builds the sessions that fix each.
What is the Wingate anaerobic test?
The Wingate is 30 seconds of all-out cycling against a fixed braking load, and it is the reference laboratory test for anaerobic capacity. It was developed at the Wingate Institute in Israel in the 1970s — Ayalon, Inbar and Bar-Or published the protocol in 1974 — and it remains the standard because it is brutally simple and highly repeatable. Three numbers come out: how much power you can produce at your best, how much you can hold for half a minute, and how much of it you lose along the way.
How this calculator works
Peak power is the highest 5-second average of the effort, normally in the first few pedal strokes. Mean power is the average across the full 30 seconds — if your ergometer only reports total work in kilojoules, divide by 30 to get watts, or switch the input above and this calculator will do it. The fatigue index is (peak − minimum) ÷ peak × 100, using the lowest 5-second window. Every figure is also reported per kilogram of body mass, which is the form published norms use, because absolute watts mostly tell you how big someone is.
Running the test properly
The standard cycle protocol uses a braking load of 0.075 kg per kilogram of body mass on a Monark-style ergometer, higher for trained or power-sport athletes. Warm up for five minutes with a couple of short accelerations, then start from a rolling cadence and go absolutely flat out from the first second — pacing ruins the test, and a pace-judged effort produces a flattering fatigue index because the peak never happens. Stay seated or stay standing consistently, and use the same ergometer and load every time you retest.
What the numbers mean
Trained men typically produce around 10–12 W/kg peak and 7–9 W/kg mean; trained women run roughly 15 % lower, and sprint-trained athletes sit above both. Fatigue index normally lands between 35 % and 55 %, and a high value is not automatically bad — a big peak with a steep drop is a sprinter's profile, while a modest peak with a shallow drop is an endurance profile. Compare a retest against your own previous numbers rather than against a table: the same athlete on a different ergometer or braking load is a different measurement.