March At coreStrong

LAST DAY OF WINTER CHALLENGE IS MARCH 12

​Less than 2 weeks to go to finish strong!  Many of you have far surpassed the required 32 classes.  Amazing!  The winner of the 10 class package will be announced in class on March 13 and those completing 32 classes can pick up their grips socks at the front desk between March 13th and 18th.

If you'd like to do a final InBody scan, you can also do that March 13 - 18.  

Thanks for participating!  You Killed It!

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​PLEASE USE YOUR APP!

• TO CHECK IN
• TO PURCHASE RETAIL OR GRIP SOCKS
• TO BOOK OR CANCEL A CLASS
• ADD YOUR BOOKING TO YOUR PERSONAL CALENDAR
• TO CHECK OUT YOUR PROFILE PAGE 
• TO SWIPE LEFT FOR FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

DID YOU LOSE SOMETHING?
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THANKS FOR PICKING UP YOUR THINGS FROM THE LOST AND FOUND.  IT WILL ALL BE DISCARDED ON MARCH 8TH AND WE'D HATE TO THROW OUT SOMETHING THAT YOU'RE MISSING.

PLEASE TAKE A LOOK AS YOU COME IN FOR CLASS

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• ​We'll be going old school for this challenge!  Yup, posters and stickers are coming back!
• One month to take 16 classes!  More details to follow in our April Newsletter.
• You must sign up by April 12th, no late sign ups will be accepted.

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VO2 WHAT? 

​“Watch your RPM, don’t let it fall! Keep going!” By this time, I was punching 135 W on this ancient bike, I could feel the brick seat pad through my cycling shorts, and I was sucking wind like a newborn baby. I had long stopped hearing the encouragement coming from Ben Stein, cycling coach and VO2 max tester at Idaho Sports Medicine Institute, as he watched my metabolic line shift ever upwards on his testing computer. By then, I had long downshifted into a primal state- survive.

So why on earth would I pay one hundred dollars to fight for my life for fifteen minutes? Well, slap on your bike chamois and let’s talk about your maximal aerobic capacity, or VO2 max for short. At the beginning of this year, I set out to find out all of my health metrics to figure out what my fitness baseline is and how I could improve it. Now that I’m rapidly approaching my mid-thirties, I’m a lot less interested in the tiniest body I can cultivate (thank you 90s diet culture) and much more interested in laying the groundwork for a strong, capable, and let me be honest, absolute machine of a body. 

This journey began with cracking open the pages of Dr. Peter Attia’s book Outlive, which completely changed my perspective on health, longevity and what it means to be a functional human being. Chapter 11 Exercise was the pivot point. I have always known how important exercise is, but not the nitty-gritty of it all. This was the first time I stumbled across the concept of VO2 max and just how important it is as a marker for health and longevity. “It turns out that peak aerobic cardiorespiratory fitness, measured in terms of VO2 max is perhaps the single most powerful marker for longevity. VO2 max represents the maximum rate at which a person can utilize oxygen…The higher someone’s VO2 max, the more oxygen they can consume to make ATP, and the faster they can ride or run- in short, the more they can do.” Dr. Attia goes on to say that those with below-average VO2 max for their age and sex double their risk for all-cause mortality. Let me repeat that. Double. Smokers have a better longevity outlook with a forty percent all-cause mortality risk. 

As a naturally curious person who is interested in not dying prematurely, I, of course, had to know what my VO2 max is. For a 33 year old woman, the average VO2 max is roughly 28-36.9 ml/kg/min. Knowing that I don’t train cardiovascular fitness outside of the Versa climber, I was hoping to at least hit the average. So off I went to schedule my appointment with Ben at ISMI, unaware that I was about to partake in the world’s most hellish Peloton ride. 

I arrived at ISMI in the morning, when I knew I would be capable of peak cardiovascular performance. The day before I made sure to eat a lot of carbohydrates, hydrate, and get a good night’s sleep. To say I was nervous is a massive understatement. If something has the word “test” within a five mile radius, I get flashbacks to my college prep school days and start shaking like an overcaffeinated chihuahua. Ben was quick to dispel my fears. He walked me through the bike apparatus, explained how he was going to increase test difficulty, what to expect and what to aim for. He encouraged me to fight for every single last second I could, telling me that most people quit before they are ready, and then regret it. After his shpeal, he custom-fitted an oxygen mask-like device to my face, finagled the air tubes, let me get my music situated, and we were, quite literally, off to the races. 

Now, when someone says a VO2 test is hard, nothing except experience can prepare you for just how “hard” hard is. The worst things always start with the thought, “How bad can this possibly be?” and end with “Dear God, what have I done?” This is not your grandma’s stroll through the park. No, this test is designed to take you to your absolute maximum effort- the point at which your body slams on the brakes and you physically cannot do any more work. It is designed to break you. I hit that concrete wall at eleven minutes thirty seconds. Never in my life have I felt such a sudden and definitive stop in my body. In Lagree, we aim for failure, but this was advanced failure. I’ve never felt the sensation of my body ceasing any and all movement with such a sudden and complete finality. 

When my body cried uncle and I completed the cool-down, I thought I could taste blood. My legs felt like unworkable slabs of meat (an indicator that I had also hit my lactate threshold, but that’s another topic for another time). But, I also felt absolutely euphoric. As Ben looked over my results, he asked me again, “are you sure you don’t train cardio?” I affirmed. He gave a small laugh and then gave me the weirdest compliment I’ve ever received- “I think you have a high capability of going out and suffering in endurance sports.” So, what was the result? I am sitting pretty at 38.5 ml of oxygen a minute, which is above average for my age (and achieved just by using the Versa Climber I’d like to add!). With focused training, Ben said there’s a good possibility I could increase that number by 30% and to come back and retest at the end of the year.

After giving me a basic training plan, which consisted of near death by sprint intervals, he sent me on my merry way. Now I realize, I have not written a single word here that makes this test sound worth your time. So why bother? Aside from longevity, knowing your VO2 max also keeps you honest while training. If you know what your max heart rates are in each training zone, you know what to strive for. So many of us sell ourselves short while training our bodies, never giving ourselves the change to realize our full potential. Aging gracefully and aging painfully each have their own elements of suffering, but one is well within our control, the other we let external factors dictate. If you are willing to take control and discipline your body and mind now, it will pay dividends in the future. So yes, I highly recommend the VO2 test. It’s 15 minutes of suffering for a lifetime of information. Now I know exactly where I need to be heart rate wise on the Versa climber to get maximum benefit, and where I need to be on a rest day. Am I looking forward to training these sprint intervals? Absolutely not! But the mental feelings of well-being and knowing my body is getting stronger every day certainly is worth it!