Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) with vascular occlusion testing (VOT) is used to assess skeletal muscle tissue oxygenation (StO2) responses. Differences in NIRS-VOT outcomes exist between trained and untrained groups; however, it is unclear whether muscle oxidative capacity is a primary determinant of these differences. Our purpose was to test whether NIRS-VOT outcomes differ between adults with relatively high versus low muscle oxidative capacity, and whether desaturation rates correlate with post-exercise recovery kinetics of muscle oxygen consumption (mV̇O2).