METS Perfor

On Friday, the 6th of June, METS Performance came into school to run a VO2 max and LIP demonstration for our year 12 PE class. This practical session applied the students' knowledge of acute responses, energy system interplay, and fatigue/recovery in the context of a VO2 max test and Wingate test. 

Sonny completed the Wingate test, which had him working as hard as he could for 30 seconds. This tested his anaerobic capacity and showed him achieving a max of 759 watts as his peak power output and an average of 577 watts over the 30 seconds. The class got to see in action when Sonny depleted his ATP-CP energy system and moved to using the anaerobic glycolysis system as his main producer of energy. By the end of the 30-second period, and due to the change in energy system usage, we saw a fatigue index of 47% with Sonny having a low power output of 400 watts.

Max completed the VO2 max test and Lactate Inflection Point (LIP). This saw him working for three minutes at a resistance of 90 watts and then increasing by 30 watts every 3 minutes. Max topped out at 240 watts after 16 minutes and 30 seconds of exercise. The testing showed him breathing a maximum of 4418 ml/min of oxygen, which converts to a VO2 max of 56.6 ml/kg/min. While he was exercising, his blood lactate was tested, and it was noted that at 180 watts was his LIP as after this point his blood lactate rose from 3.2 mmol/l to 6.4 mmol/l.

The session was a great opportunity for the students to put their learning into action.