In two previous posts we discussed who can benefit from testing and what tests are available and what they deliver. To read part I, click here, to read part II, click here. Today we offer our thoughts on the value of testing.

Part III – Why Test?

Physiologic testing provides invaluable understanding to empower athletes and improve their training.  Often, we find that it’s the person relatively new to exercise who often benefits the most from testing. Through the testing process, athletes gain a deeper understanding of how the resulting individualized training zones connect to their unique fitness goals. This information can take an athlete from unproductively and mindlessly going through the motions to purposeful, motivated daily workouts.

Testing helps the athlete, from recreation to elite, avoid common training pitfalls and optimally focus each day’s workout toward achieving the ultimate goal. As a result of testing, individuals learn and understand the importance of quality intensity and quality rest, and incorporating variety in to the weekly training plan.

Many recreational and master athletes have a limited time frame for exercise and do the same activity at the same intensity, every day. We all know that person who diligently runs for 30 minutes and is mystified why he/she is not experiencing fitness gains and results.

Successful training plans – at every level – are based on gradual progression and systematic variety of elements relative to each individual’s current fitness and future goals.  A well-structured training plan utilizes an individual’s training zones to develop a program that progressively stresses/challenges the body’s central (heart and lungs) and peripheral (skeletal muscle) components, while countering the work load with rest and recovery. This plan reduces plateaus and achieves continual fitness gains.

Physiologic testing provides the tools to help us educate our clients on the importance of quality intensity (at varying intensity levels) and quality rest, guided by the testing derived heart rate/power zones to deliver effective results.

Andy Pasternak established and owns Silver Sage Center for Family Medicine, as well as Silver Sage Sports and Fitness Lab. Julie Young is the Director of Silver Sage Sports and Fitness Lab and owner/head coach-performance trainer at o2fitness Coaching and Training.

The injured runner and running injuries – what a conundrum! A while back I had become increasingly frustrated by what seemed, a lack of science-based treatment plans for the injured runner. There also seemed a void on how to systematically return runners to sport, and prevent injuries. Running magazines, blogs and books seemed to exacerbate the confusion, by presenting the flavor-of-the-day solutions, leading readers on a zig-zag course based on quick fixes and sweeping technique changes.

In my frustration, I started researching programs that offered science-based solutions to assessing, evaluating and returning runners to sport, as well as strategies to prevent injuries. As a result, I decided to commit to a six month fellowship on Advanced Lower Extremity Biomechanics with Dr. Chris Powers, at his USC-affiliated Movement Performance Institute in Los Angeles.

In short, Dr. Powers had his ah-ha, research-changing moment when the MRI became dynamic in its capability, and able to capture movement. Powers captured the movement of a single leg squat, and proved, in very simple terms, that hip stability dictates the hip, knee, toe alignment. This turned physical therapy regarding treatment of knee issues upside down. Up to this point much of the treatment had been focused on strengthening the muscles directly surrounding the knee in order to improve knee alignment relative to the hip and toe.

Fifteen years of research, focused on better defining the hip-lower extremity relationship, later, Dr. Powers has derived a research proven assessment, dynamic (video) evaluation, treatment and return to sport protocol.

Powers’ systematic, progressive protocol contrasts with the prevalent treatment which seems often based on a shot-gun, guess-work approach in attempting to solve the mystery of the injured runner.

Recently, now a few years after completing the Power’s fellowship, I attended a research symposium, entitled the Science of Running. This was a unique opportunity to hear three of the leading researchers and clinicians present on normal and abnormal running biomechanics, assessment, evaluation, and treatment of the injured runner. While all three agreed on most of the points presented, with slight degrees of variation in assessment and evaluation, they were oceans apart in their treatment strategies for the injured runner. Hmmmmm, Interesting.

The presenters included…

Dr. Irene Davis, on faculty at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Spaulding National Running Center, who treats runners by transitioning them to a forefoot strike, in minimalist shoes or barefoot.

Dr. Brian Heiderscheit, Professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and Director of the Runner’s Clinic at UW Sports Medicine Center and Director of Badger Athletic Performance Research, treats injured runners through cadence manipulation, shortened stride and moderate heel strike.

Dr. Chris Powers, Co-Director of the Musculoskeletal Biomechanics Lab at USC, and Director of the Movement Performance Institute, treats with improved hip activation/recruitment and stability with a heel strike pattern.

This was a unique opportunity to glean from three leading researchers, who implement what they have proven in their research in to practice with patience in their clinics. So these are research proven, patient tested protocols and strategies.

I was motivated and interested to attend the symposium to hear and understand all sides of the foot-strike story. We all know there is not a one-size fits all, technique. But I wanted to deepen and widen my understanding of the underlying issues in order to help runners, run pain free, and avoid injury.

This post will be the first in a series, sharing the 30,000 foot view (avoiding too much detail to bore you to delirium) of the Science of Running symposium.

Thanks for reading, and please feel free to contact me with questions, Julie Young

Below is a collaborative piece based on an ongoing project between Silver Sage Sports and Fitness Lab and the developers of TrainerRoad software. We wanted to see how deriving threshold via lactate and power compared, contrasted and ultimately how the numbers stacked up.

Recently, Chad and Reid from TrainerRoad performed lactate tests at Silver Sage Sports and Fitness Lab. All of our TrainerRoad workouts are based upon Functional Threshold Power. While this value is ideal for power-based training, we wanted to dive in deeper and explore this value a bit more. What causes it? What can we learn from it? What does it really mean? While many things may factor into these answers, one of the biggest is lactate.

Lactate is the cause behind your pain when you’re grinding away at or above FTP. It is an acidic substance produced by skeletal muscles when they are no longer operating aerobically. It’s a very common product of endurance exercise, but when you’re really pushing your limits, the accumulation of lactate in your body is what forces you to slow down and fatigue.

To begin our experiment, we had both guys undergo a lactate threshold test in the lab. The first step was an EKG. After that came back normal they hopped on the bikes which were on a Computrainer for a 10 minute warmup.

The test was a ramp test which was conducted as follows:

1. Start at 60 watts
2. Increase by 40 watts every 4 minutes
3. Measure blood lactate, heart rate, and RPE at the end of each segment

Blood lactate measurements were done via a prick on the ear and the results were as followed:

Reid

 

 

Chad

Lactate Threshold Heart Rate

Looking at the data, there’s a couple interesting things that stand out. The first is in regards to heart rate. You can test LTHR using TrainerRoad, which sometime leads to confusion due to the uniqueness and plethora of variables that affect this value from athlete to athlete.

In this case, we see that Reid reached a significantly higher max heart rate despite putting out less power. While this can be attributed to many things, including current fitness level, recovery, amount of sleep they got the night before, diet, etc. it’s important to remember that heart rate cannot be looked at like power. More watts are always good, but a higher heart rate does not mean more power. Even more, sometimes LTHR can decrease as you go through a training plan and become more fit, even though FTP is increasing.

Muscle Types

Another interesting thing the lab test pointed out was in regards to the types of muscle fibers both Reid and Chad have. As endurance athletes, it’s safe to say both of them have a good amount of slow twitch fibers. These are the red, oxygen-dense muscle fibers that function aerobically.

However, notice how high Chad’s lactate shot up once he reached threshold. This large and rapid accumulation shows that he has a great deal of fast twitch fibers as well. These are white, anaerobic fibers that are utilized for things like weight lifting or sprinting. These fibers are also big lactate producers, so as soon as Chad went anaerobic with his effort, these fibers were recruited and the large lactate value we see here was produced.

By understanding this, both Reid and Chad can gear their training and racing to their strengths. For example, these results would lead us to believe that Chad has a pretty mean sprint and ability to really bury himself with an effort much over his FTP. However, due to his amount of fast twitch muscle fibers, if he were to jump right into an ultra-endurance event, he may struggle due to the extra lactate that his body has to remove from his muscles. In order to prepare for an event like this, he’d need to spend a lot of time training in Zone 2 in order to adapt and convert more muscles to slow twitch.

FTP Testing

Just a few days after the lab testing, both guys jumped on TrainerRoad to do a standard FTP test to compare and contrast the results. While the lab tests show where the curve regarding lactate production really starts turning upwards, indicating threshold, TR provides the exact number for FTP. For Both Reid and Chad, these numbers were right in the middle of the steepest part of the curve, indicating lactate is in fact the limiting factor.

Reid’s plot shows the greatest slope at approx. 260 watts, and his FTP was 265.

Chad’s graph shows the greatest slope at 315 watts and his FTP was 322.

In Conclusion

Perhaps the biggest thing we took away from the experiment, was that the FTP values were spot on with the laboratory-derived zones. However, actually seeing the physiology at work that was creating both Chad and Reid’s FTP’s was fascinating. Seeing the lactate accumulate provided an additional layer of insight into each athlete’s fitness, something that a single numerical value (FTP) cannot do. Beyond a definitive threshold number, lactate testing also provides

• A window in to the underlying metabolic systems and responses
• Data resulting in a lactate slope that provides clear indications of training effectiveness
• The ability to determine each athletes individual muscle-fiber make up and propensity for shorter explosive or longer endurance events
• A precise starting point for the threshold zone by indicating when the body is starting to accumulate lactate
• A clear ceiling of the pure aerobic zone
• A clear distinction where the aerobic zone ends and the threshold zone begins

The more you know and understand about your fitness, the better you can fine tune and perfect it.