VO2 Max Test

VO2 Max is the measure of the maximum amount of oxygen volume a person can use during hard effort like running, biking, etc... I guess it would apply to anything that makes you breath hard. I had a chance to be a guinea pig at work for a demonstate of the test to measure VO2 max. The lead tester is also one of the cyclist at work - a damn good one as a matter of fact - so he was the one who got me involved.



To start they had to hook me up to a 12 lead ECG to monitor my heart rate (HR). Then they placed a facemask on to measure my inhaling and exhaling as well as the amount of oxygen (O2) I used. After getting everything strapped on a got on the stationary bike and started to warm up as the got the computer set up. Everything was recorded in realtime and present on a projector in front of the class. Oh yeah, I was in front of about 15 employees in that sexy little shirt! The mesh was to hold all the electodes in place as we excersize. Believe it or not before I slide it on it was about the size of a large sock!
The test began with a light resistance on the bike then increase every 30 seconds by 40 watts. That started to get hard after about 7 -8 minutes. Since I couldn't talk, they would show me a chart and I would have to indicate how difficult it was; easy, hard, very hard, etc,... The idea was to go to my absolute limit before I quit so that I'm at maximum heart rate. BTW there was a nurse there to monitor my blood pressure just in case. With my legs barely able to turn the pedals and lungs about to busting, I finally called it quits.
The test products a bunch of graphs and charts that I only half understood. But the bottom line numbers were that when I max'ed out at 440 watts my HR was at 184 and my VO2 max was 55 ml/kg. They told me later that that is 150% of what would be predicted for a 41 year old male (about 38 ml/kg).