Intervention
claudication pain, pain
In the vigorous-intensity intervention, participants executed a step incremental walking exercise until volitional exhaustion on a treadmill. The intervention was based on to the incremental Gardner-Skinner protocol (Gardner et al. The moderate-intensity intervention was conducted as an interval-training with standardized duration and individualized intensity. This exercise therefore aimed at mimicking real-life situations during habitual behaviours (such as health enhancing physical activity or activities of daily living). Participants were instructed to walk a standardized track multiple times within 20 min. The subjects selected their maximum gait speed, which they were able to maintain constantly over 20 min. In case of pain in the legs, the participants were allowed to take a short break at any time. The claudication pain usually subsides quickly at rest, so a short break is characteristically during walking exercises. On each test day, a standardized control condition (“do-nothing” phase) was performed for 20 min prior to the beginning of the testing condition.