C8 - Measurement of Body Systems and Contribution to Sport

• There are a number of fitness tests that can be carried out to determine how efficient the body systems are when taking part in sport and exercise.

  The result from these tests can help an athlete determine if they need to change their training programme or use different training methods to improve the efficiency of a targeted body system in order to enhance their sport and exercise performance
• Maximal Oxygen Consumption:

  • Maximal oxygen consumption is a measure of a person’s aerobic capacity, which is their ability to uptake and use oxygen.
  • The higher a person’s maximal oxygen consumption, the better they will be at performing aerobic exercise so that they are able to work at higher intensity and for longer periods of time compared to a person with a lower maximal oxygen consumption.
• Maximal Oxygen Consumption:

  • A way to test for maximal oxygen consumption is to carry out a VO2 max test.
  • An untrained male will have an average absolute VO2 max of 3.5 litres per minute, an untrained female will have an average absolute VO2 of 2 litres per minute.
  • The main reasons for this difference are that males are usually bigger than females, as well as the difference in body composition between genders.
  • Females have approximately 10% more body fat than males, which will reduce their VO2 max because fat mass hinders performance.
• Maximal Oxygen Consumption:

  • Aerobic exercise training increases a person’s maximal oxygen consumption due to the fact they are able to take up more oxygen in the lungs from increased depth of breathing and increased diffusion rate of oxygen into the blood from the lungs.
  • Then there is also an increased extraction of oxygen and use of oxygen to produce energy by the muscles due to increased capillarisation and increased numbers of mitochondria and aerobic system enzymes in the mitochondria.
• Anaerobic threshold (% of VO2 Max)

  • This is the point at which most of the energy supplied is from the anaerobic energy system, so that more lactate is produced than is removed.
  • To test for this, the person will take part in exercise with incremental intensity and blood is taken from their ear lobe or fingers to test for lactate levels in the blood.
• Anaerobic power

  • There are different tests available to work out the power of specific parts of the body such as the Wingate test, Sergeant Jump and Vertical Jump.
  • These tests provide an estimate of the person’s anaerobic power which is required for explosive sports such as throwing events (e.g. shot put throwing) or jumping events (e.g. the high jump).
• Strength (1RM)

  • The 1RM is a strength test that aims to measure the maximal weight an individual can lift.
  • The test is frequently used in weight training programmes to measure training progression.
  • A variety of muscle groups can be tested in this way depending on the type of lift that is used in the test.
• Muscular endurance

  • Muscular endurance is the ability of muscles to keep contracting at moderate intensity for prolonged periods of time.
  • Tests for this will target specific muscle groups and count how many repetitions can be completed in a specified timeframe, or how long a person can continue to carry out the exercise until exhaustion.