Exercise is termed as an activity requiring physical effort to improve health and fitness. Scientists can use fitness as a measure to compare one person to another (Haskel). Fitness tests can be conducted in a field or lab based setting (Point-of-care athlete testing, a new approach of sport performance evaluation Ioan Stoian National Institute of Sports Medicine, Bucharest, Romania). Fitness as a standard must be quantified to be able to compare individuals (Safrit). Predicting VO2Max can be done through both submaximal and maximal tests such as walking (KLINE), cycling (Astrand) and the 20 metre shuttle test (LIU). The VO2max can be assessed by means of an incremental test, otherwise known as a graded exercise test (GXT) The GXT can be administered differently, however it similarly requires exercise participation in an incremental fashion till volitional exhaustion(RYAN P. ALEXANDER† and CONSTANCE M. MIER‡). GXT is recognized as the “gold standard” in measurement of cardiorespiratory endurance (STEVEN E). VO2max measurement values are used as a measure in overall fitness and the efficiency of training on athlete performance. Specifically in previous research, LUCIA analysed the heart rate and performance of 13 road cyclists throughout the duration of a complete riding season. Each subject performed a progressive exercise test 3 times throughout the season. He found an overall improvement in performance (VO2max), though heart rate remained stable during remained stable at
During this laboratory three submaximal test were done. YMCA Submaximal Bike Test, Astrand Submaximal Bike Test, and The RockPort 1-Mile Walk Test. Each of these test required taking Blood Pressure,Heart Rate, and times, either at rest or while exercising. Everyone is a different when it comes to Blood Pressure and Heart Rate. They both depend on how conditioned the person is. The hypothesis is determining which test produced the highest Heart Rate and at what times. Since resistance makes a person work harder, we assume that test will be the YMCA Submaximal Bike Test.
The Wingate Anaerobic Test is used to evaluate anaerobic cycling performance. This study was undertaken to determine whether there is a relationship between peak power and fatigue index for endurance (n=9) vs power (n=4) athletes. A total of 13 subjects, including 8 males and 5 females, were included in the study. The subjects were divided into sporting types, such as endurance and power. Data collected from the Wingate test included peak power (W), mean power (W), time to peak (S), minimum power (W) and fatigue index (%). When the peak power and fatigue index were considered together for endurance athletes, a significant relationship
In the study conducted by Edward H Robinson and Jeffrey R Stout, the use of one weekly interval session at vVO₂max led to a 3% improvement in vVO₂max and a 6% improvement in running(4).The interval duration was set to be 50% of the individual time that the athletes could sustain vVO₂max (the time that VO₂max can be sustained is called tlimvVO₂max or Tmax) which averaged around 3 minutes. The optimum length of VO₂max intervals is not clear although positive results have been found with a range of different interval lengths from 30 seconds up to 3-4
Interval training and continuous aerobic exercise are two of the most common cardio exercises practiced by athletes today. However, one is slightly better than the other when looking at performance increases. An easy way to measure performance increases is to examine the VO2 max of an individual before and after a training period. VO2 max is the measure of how much oxygen a body can take in from the air. It is a great reflection of physical fitness because it reflects how efficiently a person can use oxygen which is needed for most exercises, especially cardio. Interval training is when a person switches between two activities that vary in intensity or effort. Continuous aerobic exercise is when a person performs an activity at the same intensity
Intensity is the difficulty or effort applied of which an athlete works out to each session. In particular, the level of intensity is directly related to an individual's heart rate. An unfit athlete would reach a heart rate of 60 to 80% of their maximum heart rate capability after performing an activity such as running a set distance. With this, if an unfit athlete experiences a higher that usual insentisty it puts the individual at risk of overbeating or skipping a beat, potentially causing fatigue. Though an Olympic Marathon runner would experience high levels of intensities, reaching the heart rate between 85 to 100%. This level of intensity can be matched in fitness tests through the combination of the Maximum Oxygen Consumption test as well other various tests that involve the components of fitness. With these tests it will force the athlete to reach their VO2Max, peaking at their lactating threshold whilst also reaching their maximum possible heart rate. Overall, different levels of intensities are required to be applied to athletes with different levels of fitness to suit their physical capabilities and
Performance profiling is used in many sports and has been found to enhance coach-athlete communication by enabling the coach to understand how the athlete currently feels about their training or performance. This information has been found to assist the coach in the development of training sessions that take into account the athlete’s perspective.
A sport physiologist's job is to examine their patients (Athletes) health and muscular activity in order to maintain or improve it. This can be for a range of sports for example a runner, a sports physiologist may look at oxygen intake as it is an essential part to running and they will look at ways they can improve this, an example would be breathing at high altitudes.
The results of this test show that it provides a valid test to estimate aerobic capacity and shows there is a small measurement of error. A polar heart rate monitor was used to measure the heart rate with a step of 30cm in height with a metronome with a beat at 15 steps, per minute and increased by 5 steps every minute for 5 stages or until 80% of the maximum estimated heart rate was reached. The results demonstrated that the Chester Step technique is a valid predictor of aerobic capacity in males and females from a wide range of ages and fitness levels.
Athletes are all the time looking to better their performance scientifically which can be possible only if their training schedules and exercise workouts are increasing in terms of frequency duration and intensity. The article describes the current scientific information available relating to tools for monitoring training load in athletes and to outline some of the practical considerations when both planning and implementing monitoring in athletes.
In the research paper, ACTN3 Genotype Is Associated with Human Elite Athletic Performance by Nan Yang and his colleagues, the idea of athleticism is inheritable is explored. Nan Yang first explains that there are a plethora of studies and evidence that illustrates that athletic performance is highly influenced by the genetics of an individual. Also apparently studies have shown that there is some sort of evolutionary trade-off between traits that encode for speed and endurance. Now looking at the genome of a human, studies have discovered that the actin binding protein alpha-actinin-3 is absent in the majority of the general population due to a stop codon in ACTN3. Alpha-actinins are a family of proteins that encode for two types of skeletal muscle proteins: ACTN2 (in fibers) and ACTN3 (in fast fibers). Over the years evidence has elucidated that
I believe that the VO2 Max is reasonable way to determine your fitness after doing heavy exercise. Although some people get weird scores according to them (an athletic person gets a poor score or a nonathletic person gets a great score), the majority of people get reasonable scores according to their body type. After trying this technique out, I would not mind using VO2 Max again because it was a simple and easy way to reaching better fitness. In conclusion, physical fitness is vital in everyone’s life and VO2 Max can help reach better fitness
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.
VO2 max is the maximum oxygen intake during a high intensity exercise. The test is typically done on a treadmill, or cycle ergometer. The VO2 max test reflects the aerobic fitness of the test subject and the endurance the subject has during prolonged exercise. The subject who are fit usually have a greater VO2 max, and can exercise for longer periods of time than other who are not physically fit. Pro athletes usually have a higher VO2 max because they train hard in order to be physically fit.
The controlled variable included the exercise bike and heart rate monitor. There are several limitations, systematic and random errors that should be considered when interpreting these results. (4) The controlled variables were not tested before this experiment to see if they were working and reliable. Figure 2 heart rate was quite inconsistent and did not follow the pattern of the other results, which maybe suggest a random error with the heat rate monitor. A systematic error could include the fitness of the participants. One of the test subjects is an endurance athlete and the other does not compete in any sport. This would affect the results because for the endurance-trained athlete, from their training they increase their cardiac output results from a substantial increase in maximal stroke volume. In untrained persons, cardiac output increases in response to exercise primarily by an increase in heart rate. The endurance-trained athlete does so mainly by an increase in stroke volume. Simply meaning that although both participants are doing the same cadence and length the endurance athletes skewers the results by already having an increased rate in stroke volume. Another systematic error may include the rate of perceived effort. For the most accurate results, the measured maximum heart rate would be necessary to give an accurate cadence to ride at.
The effects of heart rate on differing durations of exercise were studied in this experiment. For people, heart rate tends to increase as they perform physical exercises. The amount of beats per minute gradually increases as people perform physical activities. Heart rates taken before exercise are relatively low, and heart rates taken one minute after exercise increase significantly. Heart rates slowly begin to decrease after they are taken two minutes and three minutes after performing the step test, which is to be expected. The rates of intensity throughout exercise relates with changes in heart rate throughout the step test performed in the experiment (Karvonen 2012). The age of the participants affected the experiment, since the heart rate during physical exercise, in this case the step test, is affected by age (Tulppo 1998).