A Short Note On Maximal Oxygen Consumption ( Vo2max )

Introduction: In this experiment, cardiovascular fitness is being determined by measuring how long it takes for the test subjects' to return to their resting heart rate. Cardiovascular fitness is the ability to "transport and use oxygen while exercising" (Dale 2015). Cardiovascular fitness utilizes the "heart, lungs, muscles, and blood working together" while exercising (Dale 2015). It is also how well your body can last during moderate to high intensity cardio for long periods of time (Waehner 2016). The hypothesis is that people who exercise for three or more days will return to their resting heart rate much faster than people who only exercise for less than three days.

In this report, I will be writing about the data that was collected from the beep test, which tests the aerobic endurance of the participants who are performing the test. With the results collected I will be discussing the different factors that may have impacted on the participant’s results. Robinson (2010) states that there are different systems in the body such as the skeletal, muscular, circulatory, and respiratory. Despite the fact all these systems are separate, they are all linked together to help the functioning of the body when at rest and during exercise. When the body begins to participate in exercise, during physical activity changes start to occur in the cardiovascular system starts so that it can adapt to the physical

During exercise there is an increase in cardiac output, which corresponds to an increase in maximal oxygen consumption. With the increase in oxygen consumption, a greater increase in blood flow occurs. This means there is more oxygen circulating in the blood for the tissues to take up. Due to the increase in blood flow, vasoconstriction of arterioles occurs to maintain mean arterial pressure (Bassett & Edward, 1997). This limits oxygen consumption because some of the blood flow is directed to the brain and skin. It is further pointed out that the heart is another limiting factor because it determines how much blood and oxygen are supplied to the muscles especially when blood flow exceeds maximal cardiac output (Bassett & Edward,

Two mechanisms that increase oxygen consumption during physical activity, is the increased total quantity of blood pumped by the heart and the ability to use the already existing large quantities of oxygen carried by the blood6. An increased total quantity of blood pumped by the heart, also known as cardiac output, at maximum has a direct correlation with VO2max6. A near proportionate increase in maximum cardiac output increases in VO2max with in endurance trained and un-trained individuals has been distingushed6. This relationship suggests with physical activity VO2max is increased through an increase of cardiac output.

The purpose is to define and compare parameters of COPD patients; including nutritional status, pulmonary function, gender, and marital status. COPD increases energy requirements due to labored breathing, which may lead to poor nutritional status.

Maximal oxygen uptake or Vo2max is the highest rate at which the oxygen can be taken up and utilized by the body during severe exercise (Bassett & Howley, 2000). Vo2max is wide-ly used both in sports and clinical practice and its measurement allows us to assess cardi-orespiratory fitness, one of the most powerful markers of health (Mayorga-Vega, Aguilar-Soto & Viciana 2015; Bruce, Kusumi & Hosmer 1973). Vo2max also provides essential di-agnostic and prognostic information for clinical populations, such as patients with heart failure (Sartor, Vernillo, de Morree, et al., 2013).

A Progressive Submaximal Exercise Test is a test that estimates VO2 max, oxygen consumption, and is performed by gradually increasing the intensity of exercise. This test helps predict the maximal aerobic capacity of an individual as well as measuring the heart rate and VO2 max. While

VO2max is the maximum rate of oxygen you can take in and use during exercise and is the typical parameter we look at when focusing on endurance exercise and aerobic respiration. Endurance exercise relies on the ability of the heart and lungs to work continuously for a relatively long period of time and VO2max, under aerobic respiration, (Cooper, D.M., Weiler-Ravell,

6MWT is commonly used to assess the COPD patient’s functional status. 6MWT is widely used for cardiopulmonary patients in hospital settings since it is safer, easier and cost efficient to administer than other walk tests. It better reflects activities of daily life than other walk tests and it adequately anticipates morbidity and mortality of COPD patients (Pinto-Plata et al. 2004; Enright 2003). According to Andersson et al.(2011), 6MWT has a strong reliability with an Intraclss Correlation Coefficient of 0.94. Furthermore, the validity of the 6MWT is established by the relationship between 6MWT and peak oxygen consumption(VO2peak) which is moderate to good based on exercise test done in patients with COPD (Jenkins 2007). This test is clinically

Methods: 47 COPD patients were included into the trial according to the enter and exclusion criteria. The subjects were categorized into control group and rehabilitation group using random numbers, after which have their pulmonary function, CPET (Cardiopulmonary exercise testing), 6MWT (6 Minutes walk test), CAT (COPD Assessment Test), SF-12 (Short-Form Health Survey) score tested. After the CPET test, the patients in rehabilitation group received personal rehabilitation treatment under the instructions made based on their VO2 peak and

It is assumed that because the results are insignificant that a VO2 max test does not affect a person’s pulmonary function. A limitation during these tests could result of the subjects forgetting to wear a nose piece. Not wearing a nose piece would skew the results by increasing the subject’s FVC and MVV. A set time after VO2 max test was not set, therefore, subjects varied on how many minutes it took to complete the pulmonary function tests after the VO2 max test. The sample size was very small and a very specific population. If a sedentary population would have been tested, results may have been different like in Vendala et al. (2013) research. In Durmic et al. (2017) research MVV and FVC were compared between endurance elite athletes and their age-and sex-matched sedentary control group. This study found that there is evidence that exercise may affect spirometric indices that can lead to a higher

Numerous studies showed that low to moderate exercise affect ventilation rate and depth. The PCO2 and PO2 levels are usually normal in normal individuals. The intensities of exercises determine how ventilation is regulated in an individual. Heavy work always induces lactic acid build up which we call the anaerobic threshold. The anaerobic threshold is useful to determine physical aptitude and severities in cardiopulmonary diseases. There are still numerous possibilities that anaerobic threshold can determine and studies are still ongoing to see what we can determine from lactic acid build up. Further studies should include different noninvasive ways to analyze anaerobic threshold besides maximal exercise. So far, this limits the capability of using anaerobic threshold in tests since the test is physically tolling and could have unintended side effects. Even though it is currently unanswered, ways to use anaerobic threshold are being studied and

TABLE 2: This table represents the lung capacity of people who don’t do exercise at all, their lung capacity was measured with the balloon who after that was introduce into the bucket and water was represented en ml in the table below.

As the intensity of exercise increased, so did the rates of the heart and breathing. After a small period of rest, the heart rate and breathing rate both decreased to a point close to their resting rate. This proved the stated hypothesis. First, the hearts average resting rate was recorded to be 76 bpm. The heart is therefore transporting oxygen and removing carbon dioxide at a reasonably steady rate via the blood. During the low intensity exercise (Slow 20) the heart rate increases to 107 bpm, which further increases to 130bpm at a higher intensity level (Fast 20). The heart therefore needs to beat faster to increase the speed at which oxygen is carried to the cells and the rate at which carbon dioxide is taken away by the blood.

Mammals consume oxygen and produce carbon dioxide as part of their metabolism process in order to maintain body functions. This occurs at all times, both rest and during intense work, within mammals. During times of greater work, skeletal muscles work harder than they do at rest. This in turn increases their metabolic rate and results in a greater demand for oxygen. It has been proposed that fitness training has a positive effect on both the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, which effect the maximum oxygen consumption rate during intense exercise periods. I hypothesize that individuals who aerobically exercise a minimum of at least 7 hours per week will have increased fitness, which will maximize their overall metabolic rates and give them higher VO2 max and VCO2 max values than individuals who do not have increased fitness. Ten males having different fitness levels were put on stationary bikes at increasing levels until exhaustion and VO2-max and VCO2-max was then measured from each individual. It was found that there was a slight upward trend between fitness-VO2max and fitness-VCO2max, although this trend was not statistically significant when represented by the T-test values through statistical analysis. Further experiments should be done in the future to verify a statistically significant correlation.