Table 3.

Maximal oxygen uptake and treatment data

	Sedentary‐placebo		Sedentary‐ESA		Training‐placebo		Training‐ESA
	Pre	Post	Pre	Post	Pre	Post	Pre	Post
${\dot{V}}_{{\mathrm{O}}_2,\max }$ (l·min−1)	3.37 ± 0.20	3.41 ± 0.23	3.56 ± 0.13	4.10 ± 0.23***##$$	3.28 ± 0.18	3.86 ± 0.13***$	3.05 ± 0.20	3.82 ± 0.22***
${\dot{V}}_{{\mathrm{O}}_2,\max }$ (ml·min−1·kg−1)	42.7 ± 2.5	43.2 ± 2.7	43.6 ± 1.6	50.1 ± 2.8***#$	43.9 ± 1.7	52.2 ± 0.9***##$$$	40.3 ± 2.9	49.2 ± 2.0***#
Haemoglobin (mmol·l−1)	9.2 ± 0.2	9.0 ± 0.1	9.0 ± 0.1	10.0 ± 0.1***###$$$§§§	9.1 ± 0.2	8.9 ± 0.2	9.0 ± 0.2	10.2 ± 0.1***###$$$§§§
Haematocrit (%)	42.8 ± 0.7	41.8 0.5	42.1 ± 0.5	47.2 ± 0.5***###$$$§§§	41.8 ± 0.6	41.4 ± 0.5	42.1 ± 0.9	47.7 ± 0.6***###$$$§§§

${\dot{V}}_{{\mathrm{O}}_2,\max }$, haemoglobin and haematocrit pre and post 10 weeks of sedentary‐placebo, sedentary‐ESA, training‐placebo or training‐ESA treatment. Data are the mean ± SE. Difference between pre and post within group; ***P < 0.001. Different from sedentary‐placebo post; #P < 0.05; ^## P < 0.01; ^### P < 0.001. Different from sedentary‐placebo pre, ^$ P < 0.05; ^$$ P < 0.01; ^$$$ P < 0.001. Different from training‐placebo post, ^§§§(P < 0.001).