Posts Tagged ‘VO2 Max’

Monday’s Fitness Assessment

29, Apr 2009

On Monday after work, Lauren set me up for a fitness assessment with her trainer.

The assessment consisted of…

  • Resting Heart Rate
  • Body Composition
  • VO2 Max Test (actually, I believe it was a sub-VO2 test)
  • Push-ups to Failure
  • Sit Ups in 1 Min
  • Superman Plank 1 Min

Here’s what I learned…

Resting Heart Rate

Resting heart rate is a key measurement of cardiovascular fitness. In simple terms, the lower your resting heart rate, the more athletically conditioned your heart is. A lower resting heart rate means your heart is more efficient at delivering blood/oxygen throughout your circulatory system.

The average resting heart rate for males is about 70, for females it’s 75. My resting heart rate is 49 which is pretty good. Lance Armstrong’s is about 32. At the very low end, I think there’s some Tour de France cyclist from Spain who only has to breathe once a month… his heart ticks at 28 bpm. When your heart gets over-conditioned there’s actually a disease called athletic heart syndrome. Its probably the only disease that you’d actually want to have a doctor diagnose you with since it just means you’re in ridiculously good shape, and there’s no apparent downside.

Here are my personal heart rate training zones, so you can see how it works. If you want to know the math behind calculating it yourself, let me know…

RESTING HEART RATE 49
AGE 28
HEART RATE ZONES
60% 134.8
65% 141.95
70% 149.1
75% 156.25
80% 163.4
85% 170.55
90% 177.7
95% 184.85

Body Composition

When we discuss body composition, usually what we really mean is body fat percentage. Obviously carrying excess weight in the form of body fat isn’t going to make running any easier, so for a runner it’s usually good to have minimal body fat to a certain point. If your body dips below 4% however, this starts to become a disadvantage. At sub-4% body fat, I think your body basically starts eating itself because its hungry. We don’t want that happening.

Ideal body fat percentage is largely dependent on age and sex. I came in at a lean 5.7%. Here’s what the chart looks like for both men and women…

BODY FAT PERCENTAGE for MEN
AGE LEAN IDEAL AVERAGE OVERFAT
20 – 29 3 – 9 9 – 16 16 – 22 > 22
MEN 30 – 39 5 – 12 12 – 20 20 – 25 > 25
40 – 49 7 – 15 15 – 22 22 – 28 > 28
50 – 59 9 – 19 19 – 25 25 – 30 > 30
60 – 69 11 – 20 21 – 26 26 – 31 > 31

BODY FAT PERCENTAGE for WOMEN
AGE LEAN IDEAL AVERAGE OVERFAT
20 – 29 12 – 18 18 – 24 24 – 31 > 31
WOMEN 30 – 39 13 – 20 20 – 26 26 – 33 > 33
40 – 49 15 – 22 22 – 28 28 – 35 > 35
50 – 59 16 – 26 26 – 30 30 – 37 > 37
60 – 69 18 – 26 27 – 32 33 – 38 > 38

VO2 Test…

Friday Hill Work

24, Apr 2009

Did some quick hill work at lunch time today, starting off with a slow first mile at a 2% incline and progressing to a 6:30 pace at a 4% grade by the 3rd mile. Finished off with 1000M at 6:00 pace and then the treadmill mysteriously shut down. Not sure why it did, but I think it was the ghost of Prefontaine telling me not to over do it.

I’m feeling the early onset of some shin splints so I’ll do my best to avoid running on both Saturday and Sunday. Wouldn’t mind getting in a few hours of outdoor biking on one of those days.

Then on Monday there’s my fitness assessment, where I finally get my VO2 reading. After the assessment I’d like to head over to the East 6th track for 12 x 400M speed work.

J

Fitness Assessment – VO2 Max

1, Apr 2009

The gym I belong to wants to sign up more people for personal training. To recruit new trainees, they offer everyone a free ‘fitness evaluation.’ I’ve considered taking them up on the offer for a while now, but for one reason or another, never got around to inquiring. Yesterday, I received a phone call from the gym asking me to schedule time to come in and I couldn’t say no. Today after work, I am getting a fitness assessment.

Among other things they will measure Resting Heart Rate, Body Composition, # of Push ups / Sit ups in 1 min and VO2 Max. This is going to be great, I’ve read so much about VO2 as one of the benchmarks in athletic performance. I’m really curious how I measure up, and as a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure the trainer will be a little surprised as well. I’m guessing the average person that comes in for an assessment isn’t a semi-accomplished endurance athlete.

Let me explain VO2 Max quickly. Further reading is available at: http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/VO2max.html

According to Sport Fitness Advisor…


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