What is V02 Max and Lactate Threshold?
You may have heard the terms V02 max and lactate threshold thrown around, especially if you are in the endurance community. These two metrics are arguably the most important factors that influence endurance athletic performance and indicate overall health status.
What is V02 max
V02 max is a measure of an individual's aerobic energy output capacity, specifically a measure of the amount of oxygen your body can use during maximal exercise. In simpler terms, testing your V02 max is testing the efficiency of your heart to pump oxygen rich blood to the muscles. The biggest factors affecting VO2max are age, gender, and baseline fitness.
Why is V02 Max important?
Finding out how much oxygen you can take in during a minute gives your coach a great idea of the potential for performance. The more oxygen an individual can consume, the more energy can be produced for muscles to use to contract.
There is a significant positive correlation between having a high V02 max and running performance.
Individuals with a healthy VO2 max are more likely to experience positive health benefits such as: increased lifespan, reduced risk for stroke, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. V02 max norms depend on your gender and age. Check out the image below for a table of V02 max norms.
Looking at an individual’s V02 max used to be the gold standard for predicting endurance performance. Current research shows that V02 max is part of the picture, but is not the only determinant for predicting endurance performance capability.
What is Lactate?
Lactate is a byproduct of glucose utilization in muscle cells. Lactate is an important energy source that often gets overlooked. Lactate can rapidly be converted to glucose in the liver to serve as an energy source in fast-twitch types of muscle fibers.
What is Lactate Threshold?
Lactate threshold is the exercise intensity an individual can sustain for a given amount of time- this time is usually whatever duration is needed to complete an athletic event . This exercise intensity is determined by how much blood lactate is in your system at that intensity of exercise. Research shows the blood lactate concentration at threshold is around 2.2 mmol/L to 4 mmol/L.
When we go over our lactate threshold, we get high accumulation of H+ which ultimately causes our muscles to get metabolically stressed and our muscle contractility potential decreases. This is what is happening behind the fatigued/ slowing down feeling we feel at higher intensities of exercise. Testing your lactate threshold can measure at what heart rate and the intensity level your body and muscles can actually withstand before hitting that point of fatigue.
To improve lactate threshold, we need to train at Zone 2 and Zone 5. Endurance training in Zone 2 and Zone 5 increases the amount of mitochondria, which work to help clear lactate from the system.
Why is Lactate Threshold important?
The better the training level of an athlete is, the better that athlete is at clearing lactate from their system by either reusing it as energy or converting it to CO2 to be expelled. In well trained athletes, less blood lactate accumulation is observed. The ability of an individual to efficiently clear lactate determines that individual's ability to sustain performance at a high level.
Metabolic Analysis
A metabolic analysis determines what types of energy sources you use at certain heart rates. We can determine your lactate threshold and V02 max from a metabolic analysis. This test provides us with information regarding what energy systems need to be trained in order to better help you reach your goals. By training the appropriate energy system, you will be able to train more, run longer, and race faster
Summary
Overall, knowing our V02 max and lactate threshold can help you capitalize on training gains. Participating in a metabolic stress test allows you to gain this data and train efficiently. This will ensure you get across the finish line faster and stronger.
