VO2 Max (Peak Aerobic Capacity) Testing

There are a number of ways to determine what kind of progress you are making in your quest for physical fitness. However, when it comes to building endurance and promoting your longevity, learning your VO2 Max and striving to improve it are paramount. You will increase your body’s ability to fend off fatigue, improve your body’s ability to burn fat, improve overall performance and create a potent weapon against all-cause mortality.

So how do you measure VO2?

At Fitness RxPerts we measure VO2 at specific points and the corresponding heart rates as well as calories burned at each level. Using Korr Medical’s CardioCoach we perform an exercise test where we measure how much oxygen your body is utilizing at four points:

1) At the Outset of the test

Where the contribution of the anaerobic pathway begin to rise and lactate levels begin to rise above baseline

2) At your Aerobic Threshold

Where aerobic respiration dominates and lactate is produced in the cell but at a rate that the cell is able to remove through one of several mechanisms and pH is stable

3) At your Anaerobic Threshold

Where anaerobic respiration begins to dominate energy production and the rate of lactate production inside the cell exceeds the rate of removal and therefore starts to accumulate causing pH to begin to drop (acidity to begin to develop)

4) At your Peak effort

Where anaerobic respiration is the dominant energy system, lactate and free hydrogen ion Production has accumulated so much that acidosis causes the muscle to burn and fatigue, breathing rate to climb rapidly and force stoppage