Fitness Test

How does it work?

VO2Max is a measurement that describes your cardiorespiratory or aerobic fitness and is expressed in milliliters per minute per kilogram of body weight (ml/min/kg). VO2Max is a single number that captures your heart, lungs, circulatory system, and muscles all working independently and together. Therefore, your VO2Max is connected to performance, but also health and longevity of life. It represents your peak capacity for effort, the peak rate at which your body is able to bring oxygen into the body and transport it to the muscles, where it is used to produce energy with maximum efficiency. By measuring your VO2max, we can determine what your preferable heart rate is in each physical activity. Regardless if you are training for a sprint or a long endurance run, it can make all the difference!

VO2Max is closely related to your lactate. Lactate is salt created by lactic acid in the body during movement. Lactate threshold is commonly known as the exercise intensity that an individual can sustain for a specific period of time before their blood lactate concentration becomes too high. At this point, you can no longer sustain your level of intensity and you can feel nauseous. For every training zone, you have a level of lactate output and this determines if you can continue or need to stop during your training session. Lactate testing provides a measurement for how well your muscles are using available oxygen to help you gain insight in both your aerobic and anaerobic abilities – a reliable indicator of overall athletic performance. 

So, through lactate testing, you can learn how much lactate you can deal with during a training session, and subsequently start to train to increase your tolerance of lactate.

The testing occurs either on the bicycle or the treadmill, that is up to your preference or specific sport similarity (swimming is also an option). Simple measurements are taken before the test such as weight, height, fat percentage(depending on your package), and VO2Max mask caliber. Afterwards, we begin with the warm up where you sustain a certain speed for 10 minutes, then we increase the intensity every 3 minutes. At the end of each increment (3 minutes) we prick your earlobe with a small needle and get a small drop of blood to calculate your lactate. During this whole process the VO2Max continuously calculates your oxygen consumption. The test is continued until you reach exhaustion and not able to continue anymore. Afterwards an immediate cool-down, shower, and a discussion about your test! You will get the results with an explanation e-mailed to you along with a print out, and discuss any further questions or concerns.