Interpreting Aerobic Fitness in Youth: The Fallacy of Ratio Scaling

In this paper, we draw on cross-sectional, treadmill-determined, peak oxygen uptake data, collected in our laboratory over a 20-year period, to examine whether traditional per body mass (ratio) scaling appropriately controls for body size differences in youth. From an examination of the work of pioneering scientists and the earliest studies of peak oxygen uptake, we show how ratio scaling appears to have no sound scientific or statistical...