sportsdietpain

In the last blog I talked about what Vo2Max is and why it’s important to train it. In this blog I will talk about how to improve it.

Remember that having a higher VO2 Max is an advantage: it means that your body can take in more oxygen and deliver it to your muscles, enabling you to run faster for a given effort.So any person who runs races should try to improve it. In addition, people with a low VO2Max increase the risk of death from all causes (1) !!There are various ways to improve VO2Max but I will give the two most known and those are:

1.High Intensity Interval training– Here you would do series of at least 50-60 seconds of high intensity.  The work- rest ratio would be = to 1:1, 1:2, or 1:3. The work- rest ratio 1:1 means that if you work, for example, 60 seconds you would also rest 60 seconds. The work rest ratio 1:2 means that you rest twice the time of work, so, if I worked 60 seconds I would rest 120 seconds and so on.  For athletes who are not highly trained, a work- rest ratio of 1:3, or 1:2 may be preferable. As a general rule for young athletes, the heart rate should drop to approximately 120-130 beats (2). The  exercise should be done at 80-100% of VO2Max to improve aerobic power.
2. Long Slow Distance Exercise– Low intensity exercise where you should be working at around 50-65% of  VO2Max. The duration is generally greater in length than the competition you would be doing.

• It is believed that high intensity intervals are more effective in improving VO2Max than low intensity intervals (3,4). Meaning that even  running intervals of 30 seconds or less at full intensity could improve VO2Max.

Now, you are probably thinking that this is nice but how in the world do I calculate my VO2Max to know what percentage I am working at. This is quite easy…..but I will talk about that in my next blog. See you then.

References

1. Kodama S, Saito K, Tanaka S, Mai M, Yachi Ym Asumi M, et al. Cardiorespiratory fitness as a quantitative predictor of all cause mortality and cardiovascular events in healthy men and women. Journal of the American Medical Association 301:2024-2035, 2009.
2. Astrqnd P, and Rodahl K, Text bookd of Work Physiology. New York: McGraw-Hill,1986.
3. Hicson RC, Bomze HA, and Holloszy JO. Linear increase in aerobic power induced by a strenous program of endurance exercise. J Appl Physiol 42: 372-376, 1977.
4. Hickson RC, Hagberg JM, Ehsani AA. Time course of the adaptive responses of aerobic power and heart rate to training. Med Sci Sports Exerc 13:17-20