VO2max

The monthly newsletter of RunCoachJason.com

Jason Karp, professional coach, consultant, freelance writer

March, 2006

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In this issue:

From Bloomington to Albuquerque

Bjorn Daehlie’s VO2max

Limits of Performance

Interval Training for Burning Calories

Staying Cool

See Results With a Personal Trainer or Coach

In Press

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From Bloomington to Albuquerque

The home office of RunCoachJason.com is moving this month from Bloomington, Indiana to the high desert of Albuquerque, New Mexico.  I will be pursuing my dissertation research, Lungs and Legs: Entrainment of Breathing to Locomotion in Elite Distance Runners, in the exercise physiology laboratory at the University of New Mexico.  

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Bjorn Daehlie’s VO2max

With the Winter Olympics recently ending, and in the interest of honoring this newsletter’s name by including something about VO2max in each issue, I thought it would be fitting to mention that the highest VO2max ever recorded is that of Bjorn Daehlie, a cross country skier from Norway who won 8 gold and 4 silver medals in 3 Olympic Games from 1992 to 1998.  Now retired, his VO2max when he was competing has been reported to be an astounding 93-95 ml/kg/min.  The VO2max of other cross country skiers have also been tested to be in the 90s.  Comparatively, Steve Prefontaine’s VO2max was 84, Frank Shorter’s was 71, Jim Ryun’s was 81, Grete Waitz’s was 73, and Lance Armstrong’s was 84.

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Limits of Performance

Research on animals has shown that many aspects of running performance, including stride rate, maximal velocity of slow-twitch muscle fiber shortening, muscle cross-sectional area, the distance over which muscles contract, enzyme activity, and the metabolic cost of running, are related to body mass.  Therefore, the limits to athletic performance may ultimately be dependent on body mass.  Specifically, research has shown that endurance traits, such as VO2max and aerobic enzyme activity, are inversely related to body mass, while anaerobic traits, such as muscle cross-sectional area and glycolytic enzyme activity, are positively related to body mass.  In other words, as mammals increase in size, their aerobic capabilities worsen while their anaerobic capabilities improve.  From an evolutionary perspective, if human aerobic performance is to improve beyond what training can accomplish, it may be expected that the next species of human, Homo futuralis, will be smaller.  Conversely, if improvements are to be seen in human anaerobic performance, Homo futuralis will be bigger.

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Interval Training for Burning Calories

Not only does interval training increase your metabolic rate during the workout, it keeps it elevated for hours afterward, burning more calories even while you’re sitting on your couch.  A study published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise found that not only did subjects burn more calories during interval cycling (15 x 2 minutes at 100% VO2max with 2 minutes rest) compared to continuous cycling (60 minutes at 50% VO2max), they also burned more calories during the following 24 hours.  Other studies, in which subjects ran instead of cycled (6 x 3 minutes at 90% VO2max with 3 minutes rest or 20 x 1 minute at 105% VO2max with 2 minutes rest) have also found higher post-workout metabolic rates after interval workouts compared to after continuous workouts. 

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Staying Cool

Have you ever tried to spray yourself with water while you run on the treadmill to keep yourself cool?  Well, it won’t, since the main way we cool ourselves during exercise is by the evaporation of water on our skin.  Compared to the large amount of heat your muscles generate while running, spraying yourself with water has little effect on body temperature.  And since you already have enough sweat on your skin, spraying more water on it is not going to help.  The best way to stay cool next time you’re on the treadmill is to use a fan to increase water evaporation.  If you run outside, wear fabric that wicks the moisture from your skin and brings it to the outside layer where it can evaporate.      

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See Results With a Personal Trainer or Coach

If you’re like most people, you work out or run by yourself.  But if you want to see better results, you should think about working with a personal trainer or coach who will provide one-on-one supervision and feedback.  A study published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise in 2000 found that a group of subjects who already had 1-2 years of weight training experience had greater strength gains after 12 weeks of training with a personal trainer compared to a similar group of subjects who performed an identical training program but whose training was unsupervised.  If you want to become fitter or faster, you can hire Coach Jason as your personal trainer or coach.  Go to http://www.runcoachjason.com/coaching.

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In Press...

Chocolate Milk as a Post-Exercise Recovery Aid, co-authored with five of my colleagues, appears in the February, 2006 issue of International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism.

 

The Burning Question, my article that details five ways to tweak your training to burn more calories, appears in the April, 2006 issue of Runner’s World, on newsstands now.

 

Contrary to the belief of the out of shape runner who huffs and puffs as he or she runs down the street, research shows that the lungs do not limit the ability to perform endurance exercise.  “I Can’t Catch My Breath”: Lungs and Distance Running Performance, my article that defuses the myth of the lungs, appears in the Spring, 2006 issue of Track Coach magazine.

 

Your Ultimate Fat-Burning Cardio Program, my article on the top 3 fitness-inducing, fat-burning cardio workouts, appears in the April, 2006 issue of Oxygen magazine, on newsstands now.

 

Workout Express, my column that details a 30-minute cardio workout, an accompanying playlist of songs, and a single “must-do” strength exercise, appears in the April, 2006 issue of Shape magazine, on newsstands now.

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To view past newsletters, go to http://www.runcoachjason.com/newsletter.

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©2006 Jason Karp. All rights reserved.