Hello , my friends , and welcome back to the Find your Edge podcast . This episode is a little bit of a shorter one , but I just wanted to throw a little tidbit of information out , because it is a question that we get all the time with athletes who are coming into our lab . And when I say lab , what I mean by that is our exercise physiology testing facility that is home-based in Cary , north Carolina . So when you hear me say lab , that's what I mean . If you go onto theenduranceedgecom and you look under services for metabolic and sweat testing , you can book a metabolic and sweat test at our facility . The majority of people who we have come in are typically anywhere between , I'd say , late 20s to earlier mid-60 . And they just want to do something really cool for themselves . Every once in a while we get a professional athlete , but more often than not it's people just like you who just want to do something awesome for themselves , be a little bit more intentional and more scientific about their training . So the biggest question that I've been getting lately is I want to know my zone too . So and I'm guessing that that is mostly relating to some of the other podcasts that you guys are listening to , which is great that we're getting more information and we're trying to understand our physiology better and our metabolism better . So fantastic for that right . We are totally here for it .
Speaker 0So most people when they come in , they say this stupid zone two training doesn't work or I don't know if I'm doing this zone two training right . That's what we help them with and we like to do that specific testing between your substrate use and that is based on your VO two or your volume of oxygen . That's why you put the mask on your face , right . Most people , when you say VO2 , they assume VO2 max . That is a specific term for the maximum amount of oxygen that you consume to do work . But VO2 is being taken at every point along the process , right ? So when you are walking or when you're at rest , your VO2 is most likely somewhere around three to four . When you are running at your maximal capacity , we typically see people with VO2 maxes in the 30s to the 60s and every once in a while we get somebody in the 70s . So just so that you have that concept .
Speaker 0So VO2 , or being aerobic for your zone two , means that you are using fat as an energy source efficiently or as best as you possibly can . There are quite . There are a couple of factors that go into that , but we want to make sure that your zone two training is doing that well . That helps with training your type one muscle fibers , or what you might know as slow twitch muscle fibers , and it also helps with fatigue resistance . Furthermore , you get increased muscle capillarization , so in other words , capillaries which have blood flow are increasing to your muscles . So thereby , where your blood carries oxygen , delivering it to working muscles , and increased mitochondrial enzymes in those type one muscle fibers .
Speaker 0So mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cells , and every time I talk about this I always feel like I'm in back in ninth grade biology and thinking like when am I ever going to use this ? Well , here we are friends . So when those within the cell , when we can multiply our mitochondria and then also make those mitochondrial enzymes more efficient , voila , we've got tons of energy to be able to help us go for two , three plus hours , depending on what you're training for right . So that's where that is really important . We also use lactate in combination with our VO2 . So typically lactate occurs if we're doing a graded exercise test in an exponential format , so it should theoretically be low , and when I say low , it's like under two millimoles , and then once you hit two millimoles you start to have an exponential rise . And then , of course , four millimoles those are kind of our key markers two and four millimoles , which can be referred to as onset of blood , lactate accumulation or OBLA , or lactate threshold or LT , which in the cycling world you might think of as FTP .
Speaker 0So there's a lot of different pieces that I'm not going to get into too much Again , so many different podcasts that we could do on this . But this is what we do in order to help people train more effectively and more efficiently . So oftentimes when people come in , they are training at a pace that's way too slow and then they're complaining that it's not working , or they're training at a pace that's way too high and they're just not becoming more efficient . So I at least wanted to just throw that out for you guys to start to think about . There's so many other pieces that go into this , from your genetics to what your training history is , to how you put your training together . But this is one of the pieces of the puzzle to help you train more effectively and efficiently .
Speaker 0And , like I said , if you are interested in booking a metabolic test with us , whether it be your VO2 max or your lactate threshold or your body composition test , we've got all kinds of or your resting metabolic rate . Look at all those things that we have . Again , head to theenduranceedgecom and , under services , go to metabolic and sweat testing and you can book there . We are excited that we just brought on another exercise physiologist , so huzzah , and you'll be able to have more opportunities for testing times , including on the weekends . So yeah , baby . Anyhow , happy training . Thanks for listening and we will see you next time .