Exercise metabolic testing is an important tool to help you reach your
fitness goals and to help you train smarter. It involves exercising at 85% of your maximum (more than that to reach
your VO2 maximum) on either the treadmill or cyclometer. The information you get is enormous. You get an understanding
of your aerobic threshold, anaerobic threshold and important information regarding calorie consumption. It is vital,
in endurance racing and training, to know your aerobic zones so that you can maintain energy. While in the aerobic zone
you burn mainly fats as an energy source with a burn of carbohydrates to fuel that furnace. That means that you need
carbs around to run the machine that burns the fats. A very important concept to understand.
As you reach
into your anaerobic zones you find that there may be more than one. Initally, you may burn some lactate, as it builds
up, as a fuel soruce. Later you run out of the ability to clear the lactate and a slow down or even stopping is inevitable.
Knowing these zones are a key to helping you train smarter and not harder. If you are interested in learning
more please contact me at the email address on my contact page.
