The purpose of the present study was to scrutinize the relationship between male young and elite wrestlers' blood and salivary lactate densities and, heart rate through the non-invasive estimation of lactate threshold after the effectuation of a certain periodic wrestling-based exercise protocol. To this end, 20 male young elite wrestlers (Age 17+-2.5; Height: 178.73+-4.4; Weight: 65.2+-6.4; Fat percentage: 13.45+-1.2) were incorporated into the study. The subjects effectuated the periodic wrestling-based exercise protocol in 5 minute phases so that their heart rates could be recorded using a Polar heart rate meter. The blood and salivary lactate sampling involved six phases including: resting mode, after warming up for 15 minutes and, after effectuation of four 5-minute exercise phases at intensities of 60%, 70%, 80% and, 90%. Blood and salivary lactate samples were taken during the passive 5-minute resting periods between the exercise phases. The data were analyzed through the application of the ANOVA test with repeated measurements and the Spearman correlation test at the significance level of 0.05. Considering the results, a statistically significant difference exists between the values of blood and salivary lactate between the aforementioned six phases. On the other hand, an acceptable correlation exists between the phase five's and the phase six's (at intensities of 80% and 90%) values of blood and salivary lactate (P<0.05, R5 – 69 & P<0.05, R6 – 59) while there are is also a high correlation evident between heart rate and lactate levels in phases number five and six (P<0.05, R5 – 59 & P<0.05, R6 – 63). Therefore the method of salivary lactate estimation could possibly be used as a non-invasive method in physiology studies for the objective determination of anaerobic threshold for such exercise protocols.
