In the last post we talked about why people may use a heart rate monitor. Click here if you missed that post. Besides the most common value people check when they use a heart rate monitor, which is calories burned there are a number of other benefits to using one. But first we should do a quick review so we're all on the same page as to what we're talking about. So here's a quick recap of some of the terms you may get thrown around on blogs and in training circles. Anaerobic Threshold - This is the intensity of exercise where energy demands cannot solely be supplied by oxygen and must be supplemented by anaerobic metabolism. Lactate Threshold - As the demands for energy produced anaerobically increase there is a lactate accumulation in the blood as well. Lactate accumulates because it is being produced faster than it can be cleared from the blood. The units for this measure may be expressed as mmol/L. VO2max - This is the highest rate of oxygen consumption at maximal intensity exercise. In other words when we are below our VO2max we can still consume more oxygen with increasing intensity. However once our VO2max has been achieved further increases with intensity will not result in increased oxygen consumption. In terms of units it is usually expressed as ml/kg/min. If I've worked with you before or you are familiar with our coaching style at Okanagan Peak Performance Inc you'll know we use a lot of analogies. So here's the analogy for lactate threshold and VO2max. Lactate Threshold is like the floor in your home. VO2max is like the ceiling. With my own training I would like to improve my lactate threshold. In other words I want to raise the floor up towards the ceiling. Let's throw...

If you are serious about getting better at something than you need to test yourself every now and again. For example, you can't claim to be a fast runner if all you do is go for runs but have never stepped up to the line in a race to measure yourself. However that's the way a lot of people approach their training. The put in training session after training session, week after week and this continues on indefinitely. Not only does this approach never really tell you how good you are if never really tells you what your weak links are and what could be improved. Lactate Testing at UBCORecently I had the opportunity to go out to UBCO and do some testing. This was a test performed on a stationary bike to determine my VO2max, lactate threshold, max power and other interesting facts about what my body does when cycling. The first thing you notice when you do this test for the first time is that it's not comfortable. And I'm not talking about the physical discomfort. That comes later. Instead I'm talking about the unusual sensation of having your nose plugged and a snorkel type of mouth guard connected to tubing that can measure your expired air. In other words a computer can detect changes in the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the air that is exhaled. So picture a halo type of apparatus sitting on top of your head, with a mouth guard and tubing attached to the computer beside you and a nose plug to ensure gas exchange only occurs through the mouth. And this is what is a little uncomfortable. Because once in a while in normal living we may have to take an irregular breath. Instead of the normal inhale-pause-exhale pattern of breathing sometimes we...