Performance Testing

VO2 max

VO2 max is defined as the maximum amount of oxygen that can be taken into the body, transported around the body and used in the working muscles during severe exercise. Evaluation of the athlete's VO2 max is the best criterion of an athlete's aerobic efficiency and is the basis for all endurance sports. The more oxygen you can get to the muscles the more fuel you can burn as you will have a higher rate of ATP re synthesis so you will be able to cover a greater distance over a given time for the same number of heart beats. This is because increases in aerobic capacity are linked with the lungs ability to offload oxygen to the blood, the bloods ability to hold oxygen (haemoglobin concentration), blood volume and cardiac output (how much the heart can fill and eject with each beat, peripheral blood flow (the density of capillaries in the muscle) and aerobic metabolism (the amount of mitochondria within the muscle where the energy reactions take place).

Lactic thresholds and onset of blood lactate accumulation (OBLA)

Lactic threshold 1 is defined as the intensity, below which there is a 1 mmol/L increase in lactic acid from baseline levels during an incremental exercise test and usually shows the point where energy metabolism shifts frommainly fat to carbohydrate. The second lactate threshold or OBLA (The workload at which the body starts to use anaerobic energy with a rapid build-up of lactic acid in the blood greater than the rate of its removal) is very useful to know as it has been shown to be a better predictor of performance in endurance sport than VO2 max. Knowing the HR and power at which this occurs can be used to set training intensities and enabling the optimisation of aerobic training.

Economy

Economy is the oxygen cost of doing work. Recent studies have shown that professional road cyclists require a high cycling economy in order to allow them to maintain high workloads for an extended period of time. They also exhibit considerable resistance to fatigue of recruited motor units at high intensities below the MLSS. When an athlete is tested from month to month with analysis of expired air at a given power output, if the VO2 (amount of oxygen used) at a given power output is less than the previous test the athlete is becoming more economical.

Maximum Aerobic Power

Maximum aerobic power (MAP) is the maximum power maintained at the end of an incremental maximal test to volitional exhaustion. MAP has also been shown to predict cycling performance and when given as a relative measurement with the athlete's body mass can give a power to weight ratio or fitness index, which can be used to assess performance against norm tables. For example, a power to weight ratio of 6.0 and 5.0 w/kg generally considered a necessary prerequisite for a top-level male and female cyclist respectively.