Aim. – The aim of this review was to state the use of critical power concept at different populations and to summarize studies reported data inorder to highlight its interest for the aerobic abilities assessement. Conclusion. – The critical power determination is based on times to exhaustion at different exercise intensities. The synthesis of several studiesshowed that this concept allows to discriminate populations relatively to their aerobic abilities. This is confirmed by its correlation to maximaloxygen uptake and ventilatory threshold in age and fitness different populations.