Not that we need to cover this topic, but its always worth a refresher.  VO2 max is the maximum volume of oxygen that your body can consume during intense exercise.  High oxygen consumption is one of the key characteristics of great endurance runners, cyclists, rowers and cross-country skiers etc. 

The best runners have a VO2 max of 75 to 85 ml/kg...though compared to a thoroughbred horse with a VO2 of 150ml/kg we still have room to evolve.  Lance Armstrong reportedly has a VO2 of around 83ml/kg, while Lemond's was 93!  And if you think that's impressive, get ready to break out your xcountry skiis.  28 Year old Norwegian xcountry skier, Espen Harald Bjerke, holds one of the highest recorded VO2 in all sports at 97ml/kg!  If you'd like to read more about how Bjerke has optimized his training, this is a great read...it might surprise you on the approach he takes to intensity training (Article HERE).

So, where does this leave you and me?  Without dumping down some gas money on a lab to test your own VO2 (which there are many around here and we will explore in an upcoming blog), what are your options?  Well, as luck would have it there is a rather inexpensive test called, The Astrand 6 Minute Cycle Test.  With a proper indoor trainer, HR monitor and Stop Watch - you can come fairly close to determining what your estimated VO2 is.

In order to do the calculations and test, we've provided a link to the site.  Check it out and if you've done a professional lab testing, consider droping a note on the degree of accuracy.  Here's the LINK.

Remember, VO2 MAX is called MAX because its a defined ceiling.  Genetics play an important role in yours and although you can optimize against it through training, you cannot actually change the optimal value. 

If you've been watching any of the Olympics this year, you've probably noticed many athletes (in particular Americans) sporting a new kind of tape all of their bodies.  Though amazing in its multifunctional use, it is not duct tape.  Rather, this is a simple yet impressive therapeutic rehabilitative taping system, developed 25 years ago called, Kinesio Tape. 

The first time I was introduced to this product was via my Chiropractor some 2+ years ago.  I was in an acute phase from a long ago, yet lingering, shoulder injury.  Skeptical at first, I was advised that this was used by many athletes, including one Lance Armstrong.  In further reading, much of its use was first acclaimed by the USPS Cycling Team during the 2001 Tour de France. 

That validation aside, I can attest to its rehabilitation effects and apparently its popularity has spread far and wide.  So whether its Misty May or any number of swimmers and sprinters you see during the Olympics, you're sure to see and hear more about this unique and strangely effective tape.

To read more about Kinesio Tape, check out the main website here:
http://kinesiotaping.com

Are Running Shoes the Fountain of Youth? By Lauren Cahoon
ScienceNOW Daily News
12 August 2008

Couch potatoes, your worst fears are true. Running slows the breakdown of our bodies as we age, according to a new study. Even people who run regularly for only a brief time can reap the benefits of the activity, drastically improving the quality of their golden years. Running provides myriad benefits, helping keep the pounds off and improving overall health. But is there a downside? When the jogging craze started in the 1970s, doctors became concerned that the sport could lead to injury and arthritis in older people. Physician and rheumatologist James Fries of the Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California, believed differently. He theorized that if people started performing vigorous exercise, like running, in middle age or later, they would increase the number of years they would remain in good health and minimize the number of years they would be disabled and unhealthy--a hypothesis Fries dubbed "the compression of morbidity."

To test the hypothesis, Fries and his team have, since 1984, kept tabs on more than 500 runners over the age of 50, comparing them with a similar group of nonrunners. Every year, the study participants answer questionnaires about their ability to perform life tasks such as walking and dressing. The scientists also tracked the volunteers' health and recorded the cause of death for any who perished.

As expected, the running group was leaner and healthier, and fewer of them died of heart problems, the team reports in the current issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. However, the benefits of the jog-happy lifestyle went further. Nineteen years into the study, 34% of the nonrunning group had died, compared with only 15% of the running group. Only 7% of runners died from infections, neurological disease, or cancer, whereas 19% of nonrunners died of those causes. The researchers found that even individuals who ran regularly for just a month at some point in their lives gained from the activity--although the benefits weren’t as large as for regular runners. The biological mechanisms behind these effects remain unclear.

To rule out the possibility that healthier people are more likely to take up running, the researchers say they made sure the control group was similar in condition and lifestyle to the running group when the study began.

"The take-home message is that it is never too late to adopt running or vigorous exercise into a regular routine," says Eliza Chakravarty, the first author on the paper.

Kinesiologist Mark Tarnopolsky of McMaster University Medical Centre in Ontario, Canada, says that the study is good news for regular runners and casual ones alike: "It's interesting that someone can go out and train 25 years ago and still have those benefits work for you later."