How fit are you?
Some key measurements can help you (and your personal trainer, if you have one) to know your present fitness level and to record a baseline against which to monitor your progress. The profile also helps in helping you to decide how to train and to set reasonable and attainable goals. None of the “tests” requires any more than a moderate effort. You will also learn more about your body’s endurance, muscular fitness, and flexibility.
VO2 75 ™
Some resting measurements are taken first, followed by an assessment of cardiorespiratory endurance using a sub-maximal exercise test: so called because it does not require you to give an all-out effort which would be the case for an athlete taking the test in an exercise or physiology laboratory
• VO2 max is the maximum capacity of an individual’s body to transport and use oxygen.
Accurately measuring VO2 max usually involves an all-out physical effort and special equipment to analyse the oxygen and carbon dioxide in your breath. However, in general clinical and athletic testing, it can be estimated from a graded exercise test in which the exercise intensity is increased every few minutes while measuring your heart rate.
We use a new, efficient, validated method to estimate VO2 max from a sub-maximal cycling that takes your heart rate to no more than 75% of your heart-rate reserve. It takes about 3 minutes to warm-up, followed by about 6 minutes of cycling, and a further 3-5 minutes to cool-down. Total time is usually 15 minutes. You will exercise at a level that is moderately hard, and you are able to stop at any time if you wish. If you prefer, you can also do this on a treadmill, or on one of the StairMaster climbers.
Rather than a complex “protocol” with incremental workloads, we can quite accurately estimate VO2 max from a single six-minute “stage” to achieve heart rate above 55% of heart-rate reserve, and optimally between 65-75% HRR. There is a simple protocol to quickly get to this heart rate so as not to unduly tire the participant.
VO2max is estimated using the standard ACSM metabolic equation for cycling. For beginners, a longer warm-up may be appropriate, but the aim is to get to 65% HRR fairly quickly and to get a fairly stable heart rate for a three-minute period. If the heart rate is still rising at a particular workload, then the VO2max will be overestimated.
Here’s an example of the data table from a sample test. For this test we need age; body weight; resting heart rate; the workload (in Watts); and the heart rate during the cycling. The estimated VO2 max in this example is 52, which is excellent for a male aged 30. It also shows a very balanced fitness profile.
Further details are provided when you do the fitness test. Because some medications will affect how you respond to some fitness tests you should be sure to let us know of any medications or conditions.
Muscular strength and endurance
Some tests measure your upper and lower body strength, for example a bench press (barbell or dumbbell) and a leg press. Some measure your muscular endurance, for example push-ups or partial curl-ups. For the adventurous we can add pull-ups.
Flexibility
We use a standard estimate of trunk flexion, called the sit-and-reach or forward-flexion test. We can also measure flexibility of your major articulations (joints) using a visual inspection and/or a digital goniometer.
Sample fitness profile
Usually a cardiorespiratory test can be done together with an upper body and lower body strength test in one session.
The results are “normalised” and expressed as a ratio, with “1″ being the average for a man or woman of the same age. The results are plotted in a “radar” plot, and your future results can be compared to your own baseline, and if you wish, you can compare some of the results with published results of world-class athletes.
Your printout would include more information, but in brief, each axis on the “radar plot” shows one of the measurements.
BMI – body mass index
UBS – upper body strength – bench press barbell
UBS-db – bench press dumbbell
LBS – lower body strength – leg press (alternative, barbell squat)
Curl – partial curl-up
VO2 max – estimated from VO2 75% HRR
Other tests not included in this example profile:
OAR – one-arm row (dumbbell)
T-Bar – T-bar lift (or alternative using barbell)
Speed and agility tests.
People who are not used to cycle ergometers usually report skeletal muscle fatigue (as in “my legs hurt”) long before they reach any VO2 limitation. Also, if someone has just done a workout, prior heavy exercise reduces efficiency and estimated VO2 max because of the need to recruit additional motor units to support fatigued muscles, even without a build-up of lactic acid. It is interesting to note the same heart rate slope even when someone starts to exercise at an already elevated heart rate. For example, cycling immediately after completing 3 sets of heavy squats.
We can also estimate the power output at peak oxygen consumption (VO2max) and then on another occasion examine the duration for which the person can maintain this power (Tmax). Well-trained male cyclists or triathletes can maintain 95% of VO2max for about 90 seconds.
Interval training might then be aimed at achieving 60-70% of Tmax (typically about 30-40 second sprints) during which time people will usually achieve VO2max. Sprints lasting 10-25 seconds are supported mainly by anaerobic metabolism about 80% (males) or 75% (females) with slightly higher aerobic contribution for longer sprints. Recovery of course is essentially aerobic, so in fact sprints train both anaerobic and aerobic energy systems and typically recruit maximal fast-twitch muscle fibres. Of course we can also do intervals with longer durations (e.g. 1 minute) with longer recoveries.
If you would like a simplified version of this profile to use yourself, please use the contact form. We’ll put the simplified version on-line if there is enough interest.