Road to Recovery is proud partner with VO2 Master to bring the gold standard in cardiovascular fitness testing to Penrith & the Blue Mountains – VO2 Max Testing & Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) Testing.
If you’re a professional coach, athlete or fitness enthusiast, you’re probably looking at and evaluating ways to run faster and farther, workout harder and push athletic limits.
VO2 Max Testing
This test is the gold standard for assessing an individual’s cardiovascular fitness. If you are an endurance or performance athlete, this is something you’ll want to test.
VO₂ max is an abbreviated term for maximal oxygen consumption, which refers to the maximum amount of oxygen that an individual can utilise during intense or maximal exercise. We express VO2 in millilitres of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minutes (ml/kg/min).
There are two factors which determine your VO2
- How much blood your heart can pump out to the muscles with each beat (cardiac output).
- How efficiently your muscles can extract the oxygen from the blood and utilise it.
VO2 max measurement is generally considered the best indicator of cardiovascular fitness and aerobic endurance. The more oxygen a person can use during high level exercise, the more power output a person can produce. As such, this test is the gold standard for determining cardiorespiratory fitness because muscles need oxygen for prolonged aerobic exercise, and the heart must pump adequate amounts of blood through the circulation to meet the demands of aerobic exercise.
From a VO2 max test, we can determine your training zones & ventilatory thresholds. If you’re serious about your training for endurance events or in improving your longevity, a VO2 max test takes the guess work out of generalised zone training and off-the-shelf training plans.
Whats involved with a VO2 max test?
A VO2 max test is typically completed on a treadmill or exercise bike and will involve graded exercise (progressively harder) until exhaustion. Tests run for ideally 8 – 12 minutes and we recommend avoiding eating immediately beforehand, limiting caffeine consumption and no strenuous exercise on the day of the test.
If you would like to organise for a VO2 test to be completed, please get in contact with our reception team to discuss this. We have a treadmill onsite and if you wish to complete this test on a road or TT bike, please bring your bike and bike trainer to the appointment earlier for set up.
