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Exercising at VO2Max

JRKingOfBeer
over 1 year ago

I hear of "exercising at VO2Max" and I'm a bit confused about what this means from a practical point of view.

Goggle will give me the definition of VO2Max obviously, I'm clear about what it refers to, relation with MET and calories burn etc.

But what I am not clear about, is how I put that into practice. In particular, I don't seem to be able to find a direct relationship between exercising at VO2Max, and exercising at a particular HR.

Can someone give me an example of an exercise that would have me "exercise at VO2Max" ? If it matters, Garmin estimates my VO2Max to be 44, which is identical to the estimate following my last treadmill test at the cardiologist (Bruce Protocole)  a few months ago. If it matters also, I estimate my true MaxHR to be 175.

Thanks.

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    According to the publications I've read, VO2Max training has intensity above the LTHR level, around 95% of HR Max, usually implemented as intervals with a total sum up to 30min. The goal is to increase your endurance. But first you should spend a lots of time around your LTHR level, to be ready for such trainings.

    You can start with intervals of 30s, with the ratio of exercise time to rest time 1:1 (eg. 30s of run, 30s of rest). Once you're ready, you can increase the time up to few mins.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to 5148720

    Ok thanks for the response, from your explanation it seems I have to understand "exercising at VO2Max" more like "exercising to improve VO2Max". As in, VO2Max doesn't seem to precisely relate to a specific HR and specific duration as I wrongly thought, and "exericising at VO2Max" might be a misnomer then.

    As far as "exercising to improve VO2Max", I believe I am all set already.

    Thanks again.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to JRKingOfBeer

    I think its both phrases are equal. In fact, VO2Max (maximum oxygen consumption) can be reached exactly at those HR levels. Only when your circulatory system is at the maximum performance you can reach your maximum O2 consumption.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to 5148720

    Ok to be clear, when you say "exactly at those HR levels", do you mean "95% of HRMax" as per your first post ?

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to JRKingOfBeer

    Yes, I understand the "VO2Max training" as the training within the range between the LTHR and 95% HRMax - both 1) almost at your VO2Max and 2) to improve your VO2Max.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to 5148720

    Perfect thanks a lot. In this case, this is already exactly what I'm doing. More specifically, I alternate every saturday morning between:

    1) 30' steady session at 90% Max HR which for me is 10bpm above where I evaluate my LT.

    2) 30' intervals session, 3 minutes to reach 95% MaxHR followed by 2 minutes rest. Rince and repeat.

    I think the semantic was confusing me.

    Thanks again for the clarification.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to JRKingOfBeer

    If you can maintain 10 bpm above LTHR for 30 minutes, I suspect your LTHR is higher than you think.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to ovekvam

    Exactly that's what I wanted to say. And the same might be with HRMax. For me it's almost impossible to reach 95% HRMax during the training, and I can only dream about exercising for 3min at that level, but it can be just my mental problem :) 

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to ovekvam

    , one of the local universities here where I live offer lactate threshold tests for not super super expensive compared to where I can get it done in the private sector here, I'm going in a few weeks. I'll found out !

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to 5148720
    5148720 said:
    Exactly that's what I wanted to say. And the same might be with HRMax. For me it's almost impossible to reach 95% HRMax during the training, and I can only dream about exercising for 3min at that level, but it can be just my mental problem :) 

    I did not describe properly. Let me send instead a log, this will show better than words, I posted elsewhere yesterday. I'm not spending the whole 3' at 95% MaxHR . I edited my post.