Anyone who has used my Spinervals Cycling and Runervals Treadmill training video workouts over the years knows that I'm a strong advocate of heart rate training and have been since the late 1980's. Knowing how the body is utilizing fuel and then training the various energy systems to improve the process is critical for anyone who wants to achieve their fitness and competition goals. It's what the concept of 'training with a purpose' is all about and makes each workout more focused and effective. In Part I of this two part article series, I want to offer a summary of my experience in the field of performance testing, giving some personal perspective and to demonstrate how much the field has evolved.

New Leaf mask and pneumotach.

It used to be difficult to obtain nearly research quality heart rate training metrics. You'd have to go to a local university or hospital based sports medicine clinic and sign up to be in a research study or pay hundreds of dollars for a test. As technology improved and more and more athletes and coaches understand the importance of performance testing and heart rate training, the convenience and affordability of it improved as well.

I remember being exposed to the performance testing back in the late 1980's at Union Memorial Hospital's Sports Medicine Clinic in Baltimore Maryland. At the time, I was a teenage newbie triathlete eager to learn everything I could in order to get faster and stronger in my newly found sport. David Petrie, head of the clinic (and an important influence and mentor to me as an aspiring Tri coach), was a pioneer in the testing of endurance athletes in the East Coast at the time, having tested all of the top triathletes, runners and cyclists in the region. For around $400 (or if you were lucky, your health insurance would cover the cost), you could get tested on the treadmill using a piece of high tech equipment called a 'metabolic cart' costing the hospital over $80,000, manufactured by a company called Medical Graphics. The test was expensive, but due to the laws of supply and demand and given that Union Memorial was the only 'show in town' offering performance testing for athletes at the time, the waiting list to be tested was 2-3 months long.

VO2max tests to absolute failure were recommended for performance minded athletes at the time. This meant that you either stopped the test by motioning STOP to the technician and grabbed the front bar or you flew off the back of the treadmill in a collapsed heap. It was always easier (and safer) to say 'mercy' than to be jettisoned off the back of the tread into the wall. Overall, the testing back then was expensive, inconvenient (due to lack of locations available to get tested), uncomfortable and cumbersome (gas calibrations using inert gases and other calibrations took up to 30+ minutes). VO2max is the ultimate measure of how much oxygen your body can consume during exercise. Quite simply, the higher your number is -- the better your potential to do well in endurance sports competition. For the test, one wore a head harness with an obtrusive mouthpiece and an annoying nose clip. EKG 'leads' were attached to the chest, making you look like Drago in the training scene in ROCKY IV with wires sticking out all over the place. It was easy to feel very claustrophobic as you drooled a pint of saliva into the 'spit catcher' during the test. Nice visual?

So, the question is…. does knowing one's VO2max data really matter for the age group athlete? The answer is still in debate as some think is does and some do not. It has been reported that Lance Armstrong boasts a V02max in the mid- 80's (ml/kg/min.) and that the highest ever recorded was by a European Cross Country skier, in the low 90's. The number however, while a good indicator of where you stand in terms of fitness and potential, doesn't mean a whole lot when it comes to the actual training plan development and execution. What's more important and usable from a training perspective is to know one's anaerobic threshold and then corresponding training zones so that the right energy systems can be trained effectively. Granted, a high VO2max gives you some bragging rights when you're sitting around sipping your pre-ride cup of coffee with your buddies, but the truth is that VO2max. alone doesn't win races. If it did, we could simply hand out finishing awards based on VO2max and forget the actual event. Nope, it's a collection of things that dictate who wins on race day including your efficiency of movement, economy, nutrition and hydration strategy, pacing strategy, mental toughness, equipment selection and positioning and even your motivation. The true value in knowing your VO2max is being able to measure your progress in terms of how much of it you can utilize when at threshold. The higher this percentage becomes, the more efficient the athlete. As one trains each energy system and the adaptation response to training takes hold, the bod's ability to consume oxygen improves and it gets faster at any given workload.

Now let's get back to our history lesson. Marching into the mid 1990's, Medical Graphics, a company primarily focused on the medical applications for 'metabolic carts' and not necessarily for sports performance, came out with a portable unit for testing called the CPX Express. This portable metabolic cart still required the same calibration headaches, but it was more affordable (around $25,000), smaller, accurate and could be used in the health club setting. However, a monochrome screen of about 5'x5' made it look like the old Commadore64 of yesteryear compared to the Mac Book Pro of today.

At the time, I was working as Fitness Director for Meadowbrook Aquatic Center in Baltimore and developing their triathlon training programs. The owner was Murray Stephens, founder of the famed North Baltimore Aquatic Club (NBAC), former U.S. Olympic Swim Coach and the man credited with the early development of a very young Michael Phelps and several other U.S. Olympians (World Record holder and Gold Medalist Anita Nall and Beth Botsford, to name just a couple.). Murray shared the same desire as I did to build a world-class training facility for triathletes on the East coast so he agreed to purchase the CPX Express for the club, and we were in business! I was testing dozens of triathletes, cyclists and runners from around the area every month.

The evolution of Performance Testing continued as multisport participation grew and as more and more people entered the business of endurance coaching and innovative companies saw the potential upside to this growth. Around the year 2000, New Leaf Fitness, a division of Angeion Corporation and sister company to Medical Graphics, developed a portable breath-by-breath analyzer, the New Leaf System. Amazingly, this small unit, about the size of large hardcover novel, could calibrate itself without the use of cumbersome inert gas tanks and a flow syringes. Furthermore, it interfaced with a standard notebook PC and did away with the Medieval head harness, nose clip and mouthpiece, introducing the comfortable mask system that the athlete purchases and owns to use for retests. It was a brilliant move and quickly became an affordable, accurate and convenient solution to use by coaches and trainers interested in helping their athletes take training to the next level.

At this time, I had been focused on building my own coaching company and Triathlon Retail business. My customers were all serious athletes, many of whom I coached either personally or they came to my group training workouts each week and all were interested in learning more about their performance metrics and how to get faster with heart rate training. In 2001, I purchased a New Leaf system to become one of the first retail specialty stores in the U.S. to offer performance-testing services to my customers and clients. And since then, New Leaf Fitness has done a good job in further improving their technology and marketing, as more and more coaches are leveraging this useful performance testing device for their athletes and clients.

Now that you know a bit of the history of my experience with Metabolic testing, we come to the present day and Life Time Fitness. Several years ago, Life Time Fitness realized the importance of performance testing or 'metabolic assessment' for the performance athlete as well as for the member with fitness goals like feeling better and losing weight. They brought New Leaf Analyzers into the health club environment as a way to offer their members a more scientific and effective way to realize their fitness objectives, with a detailed fitness assessment and then exercise prescription plans based on the results. The results were clear and apparent as members who were tested and then followed training programs designed around heart rate training achieved noticeable and significant improvement over those who didn't. Nowadays, there are Metabolic Specialists and New Leaf Analyzers at each of the 84 Life Time Fitness Clubs throughout the country, testing and retesting literally hundreds of satisfied members each week. Suffice it to say that metabolic assessment has become part of the fitness culture at Life Time for many reasons including the simple fact that it works incredibly well and gets results!

Given the convenience and affordability of Performance testing nowadays, I'm often surprised to hear that many competitive endurance athletes do not yet know their anaerobic threshold or 'aerobic base' training zones. The knowledge of this information and how to use it is a key component to being successful in endurance sports. Now that Performance testing is being offered as service at Life Time Fitness to both members and non-members alike, getting an accurate assessment has never been easier for the endurance athlete.

Best of all, the assessment process is quick and painless and the information one receives is incredibly useful and easy to understand. Remember how I mentioned that performance tests used to involve going to 'failure' to determine one's VO2max (i.e., flying off the back of the treadmill)? At Life Time Fitness, the Metabolic Specialist will take the athlete up to anaerobic threshold, or in other words, that level where the athlete switches into a pure carbohydrate burning state, at which time the test is over. While this effort is mildly uncomfortable, it's very familiar for most athletes.

Once the test is over in around 15 minutes total, including the warm-up and cool-down, the athlete has all of the information necessary to know which zones to use for training for best results, including in which heart rate zone they utilize fat most effectively and where they start burning carbohydrate. Upon completion of the test, a consultation with the metabolic specialist provides a thorough explanation of the results and how to begin using them in a training program. Test data is then uploaded to a website that the athlete can access from home, comparing follow up test results and even receive training schedules from their coach.

The experience is extremely worthwhile for anyone serious about training smart and reaching their fitness or competitive goals. In Part II of this series, I go over my recent Performance Assessment experience at a Life Time Fitness and the results of my test.

Click HERE for Part II of this two part article or email info@lifetimeendurance.com to schedule a test appointment.

Troy Jacobson is the National Director of Endurance Sports Training at Life Time Fitness and can be reached with questions at info@lifetimeendurance.com.

Related Articles

·  Part II of II: Performance Assessment Cardio Point Test at Life Time Fitness - My Performance Assessment Experience and Results ·  Women as endurance athletes: What you need to know ·  Diabetes and Endurance Athletes ·  Plyometrics and Running Economy