ABSTRACT.The present investigation determined the efficacy of progressively increased pedalling rate (P) or resistance (R) during assessment of maximal oxygen uptake (&OV0312;o2max) on the bicycle ergometer. Twenty male and nine female university students performed randomly assigned discontinuous P and R maximal stress tests. Male subjects immedicately repeated each test within the same experimental session. Regardless of test protocol, &OV0312;o2max was quite similar. Magnitude estimates of perceived effort were significantly lower for male subjects during P testing (P<.05) and 80% of male subjects preferred P testing. Conversely, magnitude estimates were significantly lower for female subjects for R testing (P<.05). P testing could be reliably repeated within the same experimental session whereas with R testing, &OV0312;o2max was significantly reduced (P<.05). It was concluded that progressively increased pedalling rate offers a physiologically acceptable means to Vo2max assessment on the bicycle ergometer for males and females. In addition, progressively increased pedalling rate offers a perceptually preferable means to &OV0312;o2max assessment for males but not for females.