Good Day. Please see the article that I have written below, in response the comments posted to your question. I hope this helps.. VO2max testing/CPET for endurance athletes After reading a discussion about “VO2max” testing on a forum called Bike Hub, I was disappointed by the slew of misinformation and pseudo-science which followed. In the discussion, the question was asked, “Where can I do a VO2max test?” Why would you want to do a “VO2max test”? How will it help your performance? What followed were some sadly misinformed responses from unqualified indviduals who only understand part of the picture and are propagating misinformation and confusion and asked questions such as “Why would you want to do a VO2max test?”, “ How is that going to help your performance?” First of all, VO2max testing is a misnomer. Cardiopulmonary exercise testing is the actual test being discussed and in fact in most test subjects the true VO2max is not actually attained. For this reason the ventilatory thresholds which are attained during the test are of more relevance to the exercise scientist and athlete for the purposes of planning training and assessing cardiopulmonary endurance capacity. These thresholds namely; Ventilatory threshold 1 (VT1) and Ventilatory threshold 2 (VT2) commonly referred to as the aerobic and anaerobic thresholds respectively, are important markers upon which training can be scientifically planned/assessed and reflect the intensities at which marked changes occur in the predominating energy systems and the ratios of contributions of the different energy substrates to the total power output. This information is great importance to an endurance athlete because of the link between exercise intensity and energy production and how this affects all aspects of endurance performance including but not limited to, maximal endurance capacity, pacing, nutrition and training strategies. Once the different ventilatory thresholds and possibly the VO2max have been attained at different workloads during the test and correlated to heart rate data at each point, we now have a basis for planning training according to specific HR zones with the aim of training at or around the different thresholds to improve the specific physiological attributes that contribute to optimal endurance performance. These attributes include maximal aerobic capacity, aerobic endurance and anaerobic capacity. In the forum a comment was also made that “Sky says VO2max is not a good predictor of performance” This is an example of a piece of information taken out of context. This statement is partly true but also completely misinformed. The basis of this statement is research that has shown that amongst homogeneous groups of elite athletes (athletes of the same sport and same level) that differences in their VO2max did not directly predict performance outcomes. This is because all the athletes in the elite group had adequate VO2max scores but at the very high intensities that they competed, a multitude of other factors influenced performance outcomes, factors such as anaerobic capacity, pacing, nutrition strategies and psychology for example. However, VO2max was a very good predictor of performance outcomes amongst heterogeneous groups of athletes (Athletes from the same sport but at different level of competition). For example, novice/beginner athletes typically had significantly lower VO2max scores than the elite athletes in the same sport. That being said, improving your VO2max can help improve endurance performance up to a certain point however there are a multitude of other factors that also influence endurance performance and outcomes. Therefore to conclude, a cardiopulmonary exercise test would provide valuable information to an endurance athlete/coach provided that the test is performed correctly, using a valid test modality in a controlled environment and using accurate CPET testing equipment. Of utmost importance is that correct analysis and feedback of the results of a test is provided to the coach/athlete so that the appropriate training decisions can be made and specific training sessions can be planned and implemented.
