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VO2 Max Test

A week or so ago, I had some physiological testing done at Swedish Hospital. I was given the chance to do the testing for free so the doctors could test some new equipment. I worked with two great doctors Dr. Carey and Dr. Noonan and a number of other techs and nurses. Dr. Carey is the cardiologist and sports physician for the Seattle Superonics and Seattle Storm basketball teams.

VO2 max represents the maximum amount of oxygen that can be removed from circulating blood and used by the working tissues during a exercise. In other words, the bigger the V02 max, the better the endurance athlete. An athlete's Vo2 max number can fluctuate between 5-15% with training (more for untrained individuals). Intense workouts at or near the current max number can train the body's ability to use oxygen during high intensity efforts thereby raising the VO2 max number until the genetic ceiling has been reached. Professional cyclists typically test in the low to mid 70's (ml/kg/min). Lance Armstrong is reputed to have a maximum around 85 ml/kg/min.

My max result was 64 ml/kg/min. This number is very encouraging because, as Dr. Carey wrote in his report, that number is "the highest range of cardiorespitory fitness for age. " It is also encouraging because it's off season. I have not been doing any intense efforts and in October I didn't really do much cycling at all. Accordingly, I'm probably at the bottom of my trained Vo2 spectrum and could expect to have a number near what a pro cyclist generates during the season.

So, there you have it. I have got the engine under the hood.

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