For years I’ve assessed clients' training goals, and the one thing that keeps popping up when discussing what it is that they want to achieve is to "improve fitness". I can't tell you how delighted I am when I see clients putting health first. The way I see it, if we can support our bodies to retain some of the natural markers of youth, the rest all falls into place.
So what do people really want when they strive to be more 'fit'?
Of course, the notion of 'improving fitness' can have a host of different connotations, so each time I hear it, I delve a little deeper each time to try and get to the root of what clients mean. While each person may articulate it slightly differently, essentially they want to feel fitter, and less out of breath, they want to be able to perform household tasks without feeling achey and exhausted. Oftentimes they'll refer back to when they were younger, perhaps played a sport or when they were most active in their life - and everything was a breeze .
They want to mess around on the beach, play with loved ones, go for hikes without panting, they want to enjoy big weekend bike rides without feeling sore into Tuesday or Wednesday. Sometimes it means getting back to the sport they once loved like five aside football, netball, touch rugby, 10K runs, triathlons - the list goes on.
The common thread is that they miss the joy of movement, having their body be an ally not a foe. They miss the high that comes not only from exercise itself but the feeling of youth that comes from a body/mind that's well looked after (in another blog we'll explore that 'high' and delve into how Stanford University lecturer Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D.describes muscles as 'endocrine organs that synthesise and release chemicals into your body - they're like a pharmacy that manufactures and stores chemicals that have a profound impact on your physical and emotional health.' )
Our task at Metabolic Movement is to figure out how to improve what we call 'functional fitness' - what so many of us lose as we get older. In the coming months we'll look at each of these of major measures of fitness:
The health of the cardiovascular system - Vo2max
Flexibility - all about the joints and ligaments
The state of muscles and how they interact with the nervous system
The health of the structure (bones, posture)
Movement (which brings all of the above things together) - is it fluid, optimal, satisfying
Let's start with Vo2Max
The ultimate measure of cardiovascular fitness is your Vo2 max. What is this? It’s the amount of oxygen we breathe in (measured in milliliters) while exercising as hard as we can. The more oxygen you can inhale the more energy you can make, therefore if you improve this marker, you improve your overall cardiovascular health. It makes sense right?
It goes much deeper than this and has way more benefits than just improving your cardiovascular health. In fact, almost all health markers are improved with an improved and disease markers reduced with improvements in Vo2 max. Here is a list of some of the risk factors that are reduced with improvements in Vo2max:
Heart disease
Risk of stroke
Alzheimers
Diabetes
Cancer
Overall improved mortality rate
By Increasing your Vo2 max, you are helping your body deliver energy and nutrients to all cells in the body. Meaning you recover from exercise better, heal from injuries faster, and get over your hangover quicker 🙂
Measuring Vo2max
Before we talk about improving Vo2 max, let's talk about the ranges we want to be in and how to measure it. Men will generally have higher Vo2Max figures based on their larger relative muscle mass. Because muscle is the greatest consumer of oxygen during exercise, higher muscle mass in men contributes to their greater absolute VO2 max as compared to women.
Anybody with an Apple Watch or other smartwatch can have a look at their Vo2 max tracked over time. Below are the six moth results of Nancy, a 57 year old Metabolic Movement client who's approaching her seven year anniversary with us. You can see that her current Vo2 max figure is 37 and that she's ranged from 35 to 38.3. If we look at the grid above, we can see that Nancy sits in the above average to excellent range for her age group (still with room for improvement in her mind!!). We can also see that she's been on this same trend since she started tracking 23 weeks ago.
Smart watches don't actually measure Vo2 max, but use estimates based on individual algorithms of the brands. While there is some debate out there on accuracy, generally it's thought that they're pretty accurate - and certainly worth looking at to track individual changes over time. Here are a few helpful resources if you want to learn more:
Measuring Vo2max in a 'lab setting' - local to us in Bath
For those more serious about measuring their Vo2Max, there's the option of a visit to the
Human Performance Centre at Bath Uni. We thought it would be fun to have a bit of a group trip to visit and have Vo2Max tests done sometime over the next few months. The cost isn't too high and it gives us a chance to get tested on the same bits of kit as Olympic medal winning athletes. Just drop us an email at Metabolicmovement@gmail.com
So what can we do to improve Vo2Max?
Improvements to Vo2max can be obtained much easier than you would imagine, but it does require some effort. Because Vo2max measures how much oxygen we consume while going hard, we need to push our bodies hard to improve it. Don't let that scare you though, it's not something we have to do 100% of the time. You want to aim for an 80/20 split. 80% of the time you can do Zone 2 style cardio, which means you are able to hold a conversation while training, and 20% of the time you need to push your body higher than that.
So once or twice a week you would aim to do intervals of 3 minutes or higher with a similar rest period. A great model is the 4x4, 4-minute sprint 4-minute rest, repeated 4 times. Or if you were to cycle, row, run or cross-train, then you could finish your session with a 3-4-minute sprint at the end which would help push you into this zone.
Overall the benefits of measuring and improving Vo2max are too interesting to ignore - we're happy to chat about Vo2max and other measurements of fitness when you come into train.
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