Team Geared Up » testing http://blog.TeamGearedUp.com talking about outdoor adventure... Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:09:57 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 en © robin@bytesurgery.com () robin@bytesurgery.com() 1440 talking about outdoor adventure... robin@bytesurgery.com No no http://homedir-b.libsyn.com/podcasts/a7d06df132db6001b6053c87a6356197/487cc283/bytesurgery/images/tgu.jpg Team Geared Up http://blog.TeamGearedUp.com 144 144 Physiological Testing for Athletes: Update http://blog.TeamGearedUp.com/2008/01/physiological-testing-for-athletes-update.html http://blog.TeamGearedUp.com/2008/01/physiological-testing-for-athletes-update.html#comments Thu, 31 Jan 2008 16:36:13 +0000 Aisling Coppinger http://blog.TeamGearedUp.com/2008/01/physiological-testing-for-athletes-update.html mouse.jpg
DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) As I was saying earlier, this morning saw me head to Trinity College Dublin for my physiological tests. Like I said I wasn’t sure what to expect and it was kinda nerve wracking. Firstly there was a round of questions about age, health, how often and what type of exercise you do, family illness, allergies, you get the idea. There was also a lung test, blood pressure and a couple of other things that your doctor might do on a standard health check. There was also a blood test. After an initial 10 minutes of wram up on a treadmill and a little light stretching the real testing begun.

Basically you put on a heart monitor, you’re hooked up to a harnass (in case you fall off the treadmill!) and have a face mask very tightly fixed over your mouth. After recording you for 3 minutes in a stationery position you begin running slowly for 3 minutes. During that a small amount of blood is taken. Every 3 minutes the speed is increased and blood taken and stats recorded (heart rate, oxygen, I suppose). Eventually it all gets too much and you call a halt! It’s quite alien to be running with something over your mouth and it feels wrong to be running fast on a treadmill, you feel like something out of a cartoon that’s going to disappear flying off the back of it leaving an ‘Aisling-shaped’ imprint in the nearest wall.

I’m not an expert (!!) but the blood gives information relating to your diet and general health (mines good thankfully!). I don’t really know what the body fat and mass info tells you in relation to your performance or potential performance. Apparently my aerobic capacity is very good for my gender/ age/ level and my VO2 max was super! He also said I used body fat efficiently during exercise. He concluded that I was well suited to long distance/ endurance events and gave me a programme (heart rate controlled) to improve my performance. He also said to not lose weight (bring on the sticky buns) but to increase muscle strength with resistance training. I’m probably interpreting half of what he said all wrong as it’s a lot to take in all at once, especially with terminology you’re not familiar with and graphs and charts to take in too. (I’m only telling you the positive bits of mine of course!)

I’ll pass on the info. to Nige who kindly offered to take a look. Anyone else had this done? Let me know if you improved with the use of the Heart Rate monitor.

-Aisling-

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