Tag: cardio

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VO2max (and lactate threshold) testing: what is it and why get it?

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My new Sweat Science columns are being published at www.outsideonline.com/sweatscience. Also check out my new book, THE EXPLORER'S GENE: Why We Seek Big Challenges, New Flavors, and the Blank Spots on the Map, published in March 2025.

- Alex Hutchinson (@sweatscience)

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This week’s Jockology column in the Globe and Mail compares the benefits of VO2max and lactate threshold testing:

The question

What is VO2max and should I have mine tested?

The answer

VO2max is a term that surfaces whenever feats of great endurance are in the news, such as the gruelling Tour de France that wrapped up last weekend. It refers to “maximum oxygen uptake,” the amount of oxygen you’re able to deliver to your muscles when you’re exercising at your hardest.[read on…]

I’ve been tested a couple of times, once as part of an exercise physiology study and once purely for interest because a friend of mine, Dr. Gerald Zavorsky, offered to test me. But I’m not sure how many people take advantage of the commercial services offering testing. I’d be interested to hear from anyone who’s done it — why they did it, what they got out of it and so on.

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Cardio exercise gets more blood to the aging brain

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My new Sweat Science columns are being published at www.outsideonline.com/sweatscience. Also check out my new book, THE EXPLORER'S GENE: Why We Seek Big Challenges, New Flavors, and the Blank Spots on the Map, published in March 2025.

- Alex Hutchinson (@sweatscience)

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We’ve been told repeatedly in recent years that exercise is good for the aging brain. An interesting new study, due to appear in next week’s issue of the American Journal of Neuroradiology, offers a clear picture (literally) of why that is. Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill took brain images (magnetic resonance angiographs, to be precise) of two groups of seniors — one group consistently exercised at least three hours a week, the other reported less than 90 minutes of any type of physical activity weekly:

Aerobically active subjects exhibited more small-diameter [blood] vessels with less tortuosity, or twisting, than the less active group, exhibiting a vessel pattern similar to younger adults…

The brain’s blood vessels naturally narrow and become more tortuous with advancing age, but the study showed the cerebrovascular patterns of active patients appeared “younger” than those of relatively inactive subjects.

It’s a pretty small study (14 subjects), and it’s always worth asking whether there are other underlying factors that could explain both the higher activity levels AND the better blood vessels in one group. Still, the link between aerobic exercise and nice big blood vessels seems pretty logical. Next step: take some sedentary seniors, get them to start exercising, and see if the blood vessels in their brains get bigger.

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Getting fit on six minutes a week

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My new Sweat Science columns are being published at www.outsideonline.com/sweatscience. Also check out my new book, THE EXPLORER'S GENE: Why We Seek Big Challenges, New Flavors, and the Blank Spots on the Map, published in March 2025.

- Alex Hutchinson (@sweatscience)

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Last summer, I wrote about a series of interesting studies coming out of Martin Gibala’s lab at McMaster University. The gist: you can reap a surprising range of exercise dividends in a very short period of time — if you’re willing to work very hard. The latest article in Gretchen Reynolds’ New York Times column tackles that same research, with the alluring title “Can you get fit in six minutes a week?”

Surprisingly, the answer [SPOILER ALERT!] seems to be yes — at least to a certain extent, and with one key catch. As I wrote last summer:

There is a catch – the disclaimer at the end of the infomercial, if you will. To cram the benefits of an hour-long workout into a few short minutes, you also have to compress the effort you would have spent.

“That’s the trade-off,” Dr. Gibala says. “Going all out is uncomfortable. It hurts.” But at least with this approach it’s over quickly.

For most people, the smart approach is some sort of middle ground. Don’t aim for an absolutely minimal five-minute workout — but do throw in some high-intensity surges to maximize the time-efficiency of your exercise.

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How long does it take to get fit?

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My new Sweat Science columns are being published at www.outsideonline.com/sweatscience. Also check out my new book, THE EXPLORER'S GENE: Why We Seek Big Challenges, New Flavors, and the Blank Spots on the Map, published in March 2025.

- Alex Hutchinson (@sweatscience)

***

I just noticed an interesting study from the May issue of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. German researchers had 18 untrained subjects go on a one-year, three-days-a-week walking and jogging program, and measured their progress during the year see how their fitness progressed. The key was that they controlled the intensity of the 45-minute sessions using heart rate, so that the subjects were “trying” at roughly the same level throughout the year.

So how long does it take to see real gains, and when do they start to plateau? Continue reading “How long does it take to get fit?”

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The heart recovers after a marathon

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My new Sweat Science columns are being published at www.outsideonline.com/sweatscience. Also check out my new book, THE EXPLORER'S GENE: Why We Seek Big Challenges, New Flavors, and the Blank Spots on the Map, published in March 2025.

- Alex Hutchinson (@sweatscience)

***

The question of whether extreme bouts of exercise like marathons do more damage than good to the heart always sparks discussion, thanks to occasional sudden deaths at sporting events (see this Jockology column for a discussion of the issue). Over the past few years, several research papers have found evidence that the heart does sustain damage during prolonged hard exercise — but these indicators are very hard to interpret.

A new study from researchers at the University of Manitoba looked at this question more closely, by using MRI imaging of the hearts of 14 non-elite runners both before and after the 2008 Manitoba Marathon in Winnipeg. Previous studies have used less direct methods to figure out whether the heart was damaged or not. The results provided good news for marathoners:

“By using (MRI), we were able to definitively show that these fluctuations do not result in any true damage of the heart, and the right ventricular dysfunction is transient, recovering one week following the race,” (lead investigator Davinder S. Jassal said).

In other words, just like the rest of your body, the heart takes a pounding during a marathon, but appears to recover soon afterwards. The next step for the researchers is to repeat the study to determine whether running more than one marathon in a given year produces permanent damage.