Latest / Hardiness with Dr Paul Taylor / How To Increase Your VO2max Efficiently To Enhance Your Healthspan And Lifespan

Transcript

How To Increase Your VO2max Efficiently To Enhance Your Healthspan And Lifespan · Hardiness with Dr Paul Taylor

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome to another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Just before we.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Start, I just have a quick favor to ask if
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: you wouldn't mind going in and rating the podcast, leaving
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: a review and also subscribing, because that is the stuff
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: that we need to help grow the podcast. And one
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: other thing, a couple of listeners actually reached out to
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: highlight to me that the last two Saturdays there's been
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: an issue intermittent with the podcast, just with the audio.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: That particular issue has now been resolved and will not
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: happen again, but thank you for the listeners for bringing
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: it to my attention. Now onto this week's content. So,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: last week I talked about the single most important thing
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: that you can do to improve your health span and
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: your lifespan, and that is basically increasing your video two max.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: And this week I'm going to tell you how to
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: do it. But first of all, let's talk about getting
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: a baseline. Now, if you have one of the physical
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: activity trackers such as an Apple watch, a garment, a
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: fit bit, a woopband, or a ring, any of those things,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: they will do a pretty good job at estimating your
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: VO two max. Now, it's not always perfect, but it
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: gives you a reasonably good estimate, and then you can
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: just look up VO two max tables at Top End
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Sports is a good place to do that and then
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: you can see where you actually are. Now, if you
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: want to get a better measure, look, the best thing
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: that you can do is go to an exercise physiology
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: lab and get it tested. It'll probably cost you a
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: couple of hundred bucks, but there's a really good field
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: test that you can do, or an approximate test called
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: the Cooper twelve minute run test. So for this, you
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: need to have a piece of flat ground and something
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: that can measure your distance, like one of those trackers
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: at GPS tracker, or ideally you would go into the
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: gym and use a treadmill, and what you need to
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: do then is find out the maximum distance that you
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: can run in twelve minutes.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: So you basically run as fast as you can. Obviously,
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: do a.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Warm up first and then you start running. So the treadmill,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: you want to start it pretty quickly, or have the
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: first minute of just a warm up and then start
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: it at a minute and note the distance at that time,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: and then you run for twelve more minutes and you
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: find the distance if you've done the minute warm up,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: you want to take that distance off, or you can
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: just start cold on it and go straight into it.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: But it's basically, or if you're outside, it's the maximum
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: distance that you can run in twelve minutes. And then
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: you go to a website which I will put in
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: the show notes, and you can enter it in the
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: data in and that will give you a pretty damned
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: good estimate of your video too. Now let's talk about
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: training it. So in terms of training it, and basically
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: there are a couple of things that we need to
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: do in order to get the best.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Impact on it.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Now, if you're not very fit at all, you want
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: to start with a reasonable aerobic base, and for this
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: it's really good to use heart rate training. Now, heart
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: rate training, I will put a caveat on it. It's
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: really good if you know your max heart rate. Now,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: if you don't know your max heart rate, there's a
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: couple of formula out there. Two twenty minus your age
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: is one formula. Or two hundred and eight minus zero
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: point seven times your age is another formula that's maybe
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: a little bit accurate, and that will give you an
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: age predicted one. Now, my age predicted max heart rate
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: is actually one hundred and sixty seven. But I know
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: from testing doing a rated exercise test that my max
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: heartrate is one hundred and seventy one, so mine's not
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: too bad. But if you look at Carly's hers is
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: way art her age is predicted. I'm not going to
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: tell you what her ad is predicted, it would be
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: giving away her age, but her max heart rate is
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: about forty beats higher than her age predicted. So for her,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: using heart rate training based off age predicted is absolute rubbish.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: If you do that twelve minute round, you've got a
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: heart rate monitor own you'll get pretty close, especially if
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: you are sprinting for the last minute. But that's basically
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: a way to find it as well. And I do
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: not advise using watches for heart rate at high intensities
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: because they are useless. You need a heart rate monitor
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: for that. Now, having said that, if you're willing to
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: invest in a heart rate monitor, and if you kind
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: of roughly know your maximum heart rate, then training in heart.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: Rate zones is really really effective.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: So the best actually combination to improve your video to
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: max as quickly as possible is a combination of what
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: we call Zone two training and high intensity interval stuff,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: and there's a number of different intervals that you can use,
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: but I'll talk about my favorite dinner minute.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: So the zone training. Zone one is very.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Light stuff that's kind of recovery stuff and very very
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: long runs. That's at fifty to sixty percent of your
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: maximum heart rate. Zone two typically sixty to seventy percent,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: although some people have slightly different measures for this, but
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: let's just go with this one sixty to seventy percent
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: of your max heart rate. Zone three three is seventy
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: to eighty percent, Zone four is eighty to ninety percent,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: and zone five is ninety two one hundred percent. So
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: zone one is basically recovery. Zone two actually gives you
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: really good aerobic endurance and for lots of people is
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: pretty damned defective at improving VO two max. And that
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: will get you a fur bit down the line, particularly
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: if you're not fit in terms of improving your VO
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: two max. Typically, zone three that enhances your what's called
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: aerobic par Zone four enhances your anaerobic threshold and improves
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: your high speed endurance. And zone five is basically increases
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: your maximum spent risk but also is really effective the
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: upper end of zone four and zone five are really
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: effective at improving your VO two max, particularly for non responders.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: So in terms of combinations of training, I want to
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: give you what I think is a really really effective,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: actually proven way by research of significantly improving your VO
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: two max at any age. And like I said earlier on,
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: if you're not that fit, and doing just zone two
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: training for thirty minutes three times a week will actually
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: get you a really good aerobic base and get you
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: significant improvements in your fitness and actually prepare you for
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: doing the interval stuff, which if you really want to
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: improve it as best as you can, we need to
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: start to add in the intervals.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: Now, there's a.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: Couple of intervals that I really like. One which is
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: very very proven in the academic literature and in training
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: studies showing improvements and VEO two max and heart function.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: Is there Norwegian four by four protocol. So this is
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: four intervals of four minutes interspersed with three minutes of rest.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: So in those work intervals, you want to be getting
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: to ninety to ninety five percent of your maximum heart rate. Now,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: you obviously do a warm up beforehand and then you
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: go as hard as you can for four minutes. You
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: can do rowing machine, you can do elliptical, you can
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: do a bike, you can do running, you can do outside,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: you do whatever. Basically, you go as hard as you
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: possibly can for four minutes, and at the end that's
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: what you'll find that you're up around that ninety five
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: percent of your maximum heart rate and it's going to
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: take you a while to get there.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: And then what you.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Do at the end of that four minutes is you
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: drop the pace right down and you do recovery low
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: intense thy generally around sixty to seventy percent of your
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: max heart rate, and then you go again. So you
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: do four of those four minute intervals, and it's bloody hard.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: I can tell you that it is hard. And so
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: with those four intervals of four minutes, that's sixteen minutes
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: of work. And then you have three intervals in between
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: of three minutes each. That's nine minutes. So that's a
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: twenty five minute workout. You're going to want to do
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: a five minute warm up and then a cool down,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: so there's kind of thirty five minutes all in all right,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: and at doing that twice a week in conjunction with
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: one or two of the Zone two sessions for thirty
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: minutes plus will be really really effective. Other alternative for
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: the interval, and I actually like to do one of
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: the Norwegian four x fours, and I do another one
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: which is basically a sixty second all out effort, maximum
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: effort for sixty seconds, and then you recover really low
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: intensity for sixty seconds, just sort of moving to clear
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: the lactic acid. And you do that ten times, and
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: it's frigging hard as well. Like they're both hard, there
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: is no getting away from it.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: These are hard.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: But what we know is that some people are non
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: responders to Zone two training. It doesn't move the needle
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: very much on their VO two max. But all of
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: those people respond really really well with the intervals. And
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: a classic study which showed remodeling of the heart, improving
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: of elasticity of the left ventricle, and significant improvements in
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: VO two max use the product all that I talked about.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: They did two sessions of thirty minutes of Zone two.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: They did one longer recovery session at Zone one per week,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: and they did two intervals per week. They both the
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: two intervals were both the Norwegian, but I like to
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: mix it up one with Norwegian and one with the
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: ten by tens, and you can build it up right.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: So if you're just getting into them, you might want
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: to start with three intervals for the Norwegian, or if
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: you're doing the sixty second ones, you might want to
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: start with five or six and then build it up
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: over a few sessions. But that is basically a scientifically
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: proven way to significantly increase your VO two MAX in
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: the shorter space of time. Now, if you are a runner,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: then absolutely you'll be doing zone three and zone four stuff.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: But if you just want health longevity benefits in VO
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: two max, you really don't need the zone three stuff.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: You will go go through zone three and zoo through
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: zone for to get to your max Heartrader ninety five
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: percent of it, But it's really that target that we're
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: looking for, that ninety to ninety five percent when you're
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: doing the interval at the end of those intervals.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: That's it for this week. Catch you next time.