27 Gaining a competitive edge The importance of regularly testing your V02 for OCR athletes With 30 years of experience training athletes, from virtually every sport, I have learnt there are definite benefits to both testing and training the specific energy systems directly related to their sport, and OCR athletes are no exception. At BBG we believe this is not something that should be available only to Olympic level athletes, so we are expanding our V02 Max and RMR facilities as it is key to our clients ever increasing personal goals, but why? In analysing athletes’ cardiorespiratory status by assessing the oxygen and carbon dioxide content of their expired air at rest, when performing a section of their event and in a controlled graduated exercise environment you can significantly gain a competitive edge, and BBG recognising this use our VO2 measures for our clients to. n Determine exactly how effectively you, the athlete, use fat, protein and carbohydrate at rest and when training n Provide the exact number of calories your body requires (Resting Metabolic Rate) n Provide your exact level of cardiorespiratory efficiency (V02) n Monitor, analyse and compare exactly how effective your training is n A llows exact calculation to accurately set your heart rate training zones, which Olympic endurance athletes have become dependent upon to manage lactate thresholds and performance n It also enables you to accurately calibrate your wearables (whoop, Garmin) to get more valid data n Allows you, the athlete, to see where your fitness levels sit when compared to pre-set levels for your age, sex and other athletes (simply type V02 charts into Google) n Provides an indicator of your anaerobic capacity What does an improved V02 mean to an OCR athlete? n Enables you, the athlete to push yourself harder and achieve faster times in training, working to exact boundaries and reducing the risk of overtraining, increasing your efficiency n To carry this enhanced cardiorespiratory capacity into competition n Be your road map to becoming stronger faster n Be less fatigued during events n Recover faster between individual event activities n Stave off both the bear (lactate threshold) and the wall (carb depletion) n Drive your competitors into a state of fatigue trying to keep pace with you! The simple fact is that when it comes to your cardiorespiratory effectiveness, knowledge is power. Let me hand over to my fellow Sports Scientist David Williams to share some of the science with you: VO2 max testing is a treadmill run or cycle to volitional fatigue. The test measures aerobic fitness, or the ability of an individual to consume oxygen at a maximal rate. It is a widely accepted standard for measuring aerobic power and cardiovascular fitness. It is important for athletes to measure their VO2 max to become more efficient and analyse physiological changes that occur during exercise. This test has several advantages over traditional physical fitness assessments, including its ability to identify health risk factors. Additionally, VO2 max is an effective predictor of quality of life, as well as athletic excellence. Physiologically, the main purpose is for the oxygen to get into the cells’ mitochondria so that it can be used to generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is the main energy source in the body. The more oxygen you can take in and convert to energy, the longer and faster you can run due to this surplus of energy you are making at the cellular level. Trainers can use the information from these devices TRAINING : V02 continued Image: BBG A collaboration between Jason Crow and David Williams David has a BSc (Hons) degree in Sport and Exercise Science and furthered his knowledge by also completing an MSc in Sport and Exercise Physiology. Jason Crow, Better Body Group Managing Director, Sports Science BSc (Tons) CSCS.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDUxNDM=