Determining heart rate and training time at specific heart rates

[ninevirtues]

Okay. I promised to post about this before. This will be long, so I'll break it down into several posts. Here we go:

When it comes to athletic performance, everybody wants to know their VO2 max. That is the absolute amount of oxygen you can take in per minute, and as far as we know, it's genetically determined. I'll use a metaphor: VO2 max determines the size of your engine. You may have a muscle car engine, or you may have a 125 cc scooter engine.

Let's use me as an example: I have an average VO2 max.

Let's get specific here: If you want to get all this tested for cheap, go to Evergreen College in San Jose. Sign up for their fitness assessment lab for the princely sum of $5. They will run all kinds of tests on you, including body fat (by water weighing AND by calipers), VO2 max, strength, and flexibility. (What a deal!)


Okay, now back to the science.

So, when it comes to athletic performance, actually, we don't really care about VO2 max, since we can't change it. We care about lactate threshold heart rate, which is very easy to change if you are persistent. What's that? Well, every time you move, your body uses aerobic energy (oxygen) and anaerobic energy (chemicals that break down to produce lactic acid) to power the movement. (Yes, really, every time you move. Even when you get up from your chair.) Most of the time, your body latches on to the lactic acid and disposes of it promptly.

However, when you are working REALLY hard (say, running as fast as you can) your body is using all the energy systems it can find, and it is producing more lactic acid than it can dispose of quickly. In other words, as you run fast, leftover lactic acid is accumulating in your legs. Ow. It starts to burn and sting. Ow, ow. After two minutes or so, you have to stop, because it hurts, and you're gasping for air. Right?

So.... lactate threshold is the effort level at which your body disposes of lactic acid as fast as it produces it. Now the good news: If you spend a lot of time training just below your lactate threshold heart rate, you train your body to deal with lactic acid efficiently: Your lactate threshold heart rate goes UP, and not only does your body dispose of lactic acid faster... it actually learns to recycle it and your muscles begin to use it as fuel.

I can hear you saying.... So? Some jerk with a God-given VO2 max that's twice the size of mine will still hammer me in races. Uh.... not necessarily. Your lactate threshold heart rate determines the percent of your VO2 max you can actually use. If you train so you can sustain a heart rate that's 90% of your average VO2 max, and Mr Gifted skips his workouts and arrives at the starting line only able to use 50% of his large one.... depending on the actual numbers involved, you are likely to beat him.

More later, like how to determine lactate threshold HR and how to train to raise it. For now, check out:

http://www.nonsolofitness.com/en/articoli/articoli.asp?articolo=9

Comments

[kf6gpe.livejournal.com]

I should go get my VO2 measured, if only to dissuade myself from the only logical conclusion I could form when reading your post: that I have a VO2 asymptotically approaching zero. :)

But seriously, that's a good post, and an interesting article. All I knew about before about lactic acid was that it hurts. I didn't know you could actually metabolize it with proper training. That's really cool.

Very useful, thank you.

[sirst.livejournal.com]

Thankee ma'am.
I get very used to dealing with people at low and mid levels of fitness. So it is not so common to deal with folks at the higher end of their range. I am also much more keyed to thies RPE, using the "talk test", and watching their physical signs [how flushed, sweating, posture ect...].

Of course it's all about an individual program based on a person's needs. It's still kinda fun to look at the numbers. Knowing common trends to watch for in a population is not exaclty a bad thing either. heh.

Re: Very useful, thank you.

[ninevirtues.livejournal.com]

Well hmm. Do you have a minute to tell me what your client population can do (and actually does do) and what they say they want?