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Posts tagged ‘Aerobic exercise’

What is Vo2Max?

Some people have probably heard of this, some may have not. For those that haven’t I will give a quick explanation of what it is and why is so important.

Vo2Max,  means the maximal capacity of the body to transport and use oxygen during dynamic exercise using large muscle groups. In other words, Vo2max is the maximum way to produce energy aerobically while you run, bike,swim, etc.Remember from my last blog (click here), that we can produce energy 2 ways: Aerobic and Anaerobic.

  1. The anaerobic system is the fastest way the body has to produce energy, the bad thing about it is that we cannot maintain this system during long periods. This system is used especially during short-intense exercise, like for example, a 100 meter race.
  2. The aerobic system produces energy at a lower pace but it can be maintained  for much longer periods. For example, when we run a marathon most of the energy will come from that system.

Vo2Max is measured in milliliters of oxygen per minute per kilogram of body weight (ml/min/kg) and the highest Vo2max recorded was a Norwegian cross-country skier with 94ml*kg*min!!

Why is it important to have a high Vo2Max?  Because all else being equal, 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 let us put an example: Imagine person A has a Vo2Max of 64ml*kg*min and person B has a Vo2Max of 52ml*kg*min and they are going to run a 8km race. The most likely thing that will happen is that person A will win because of the higher Vo2Max.

Now that we understood what Vo2Max is and how important it is in endurance events, I will talk about how we can improve it. But for that you will have to wait until my next blog 🙂

 

 

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Exercise

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Does eating late make you gain weight?

Most people out there think that eating food quite late or just before going to bed is going to make you gain weight, but that´s really not true. You gain weight because of calories not because of ¨TIME¨. The thing is, that most people have had their share of calories during the day and that extra meal you are going to eat before going to bed is going to add to the already enough calories you have consumed during the whole day. So let me put up an example to clarify things.

Imagine your body consumes or burns 2,000 calories (2.000 in Europe) a day. This means that if you  eat  more than 2,000 calories a day you will probably gain weight and if you eat less than 2,000 calories you will lose weight. So now imagine you have not been eating anything during the whole day and just before going to bed you decide to have a burger, with bacon , fries and everything you can imagine. If that meal you are going to eat has 1,500 calories, you are still going to lose weight because you still have a 500 calorie deficit when you go bed. Now this doesn´t mean I recommend that you have a heavy meal before going to bed, and i usually never recommend this to my clients. But I want people to understand that CALORIES make you gain weight not time.

Now once this is clarified I do want to state that the body has a biological clock that helps time our sleep patterns, alertness, mood, physical strength and blood pressure. Usually we experience a 24-hour pattern of light and dark, and our clock uses this signal to align biological time to the day and night. What this means is that under normal conditions our blood pressure decreases, body temperature drops and we get tired, meaning our metabolism slows down. Which is one of the reasons why I don´t recommend eating heavy before going to bed.

So in conclusion: CALORIES make you gain weight not time, but eating heavy meals at night is usually not a good idea.

I have done 3 blogs about diet, so now I will change topics and start talking about sports, in particular about cardio training. So until next time.

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Diet

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