Hey, everybody, welcome to another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays.

Just before we.

Just before we.

Start, I just have a quick favor to ask if you wouldn't mind going in and rating the podcast, leaving a review and also subscribing, because that is the stuff that we need to help grow the podcast. And one other thing, a couple of listeners actually reached out to highlight to me that the last two Saturdays there's been an issue intermittent with the podcast, just with the audio. That particular issue has now been resolved and will not happen again, but thank you for the listeners for bringing it to my attention. Now onto this week's content. So, last week I talked about the single most important thing that you can do to improve your health span and your lifespan, and that is basically increasing your video two max. And this week I'm going to tell you how to do it. But first of all, let's talk about getting a baseline. Now, if you have one of the physical activity trackers such as an Apple watch, a garment, a fit bit, a woopband, or a ring, any of those things, they will do a pretty good job at estimating your VO two max. Now, it's not always perfect, but it gives you a reasonably good estimate, and then you can just look up VO two max tables at Top End Sports is a good place to do that and then you can see where you actually are. Now, if you want to get a better measure, look, the best thing that you can do is go to an exercise physiology lab and get it tested. It'll probably cost you a couple of hundred bucks, but there's a really good field test that you can do, or an approximate test called the Cooper twelve minute run test. So for this, you need to have a piece of flat ground and something that can measure your distance, like one of those trackers at GPS tracker, or ideally you would go into the gym and use a treadmill, and what you need to do then is find out the maximum distance that you can run in twelve minutes.

Start, I just have a quick favor to ask if you wouldn't mind going in and rating the podcast, leaving a review and also subscribing, because that is the stuff that we need to help grow the podcast. And one other thing, a couple of listeners actually reached out to highlight to me that the last two Saturdays there's been an issue intermittent with the podcast, just with the audio. That particular issue has now been resolved and will not happen again, but thank you for the listeners for bringing it to my attention. Now onto this week's content. So, last week I talked about the single most important thing that you can do to improve your health span and your lifespan, and that is basically increasing your video two max. And this week I'm going to tell you how to do it. But first of all, let's talk about getting a baseline. Now, if you have one of the physical activity trackers such as an Apple watch, a garment, a fit bit, a woopband, or a ring, any of those things, they will do a pretty good job at estimating your VO two max. Now, it's not always perfect, but it gives you a reasonably good estimate, and then you can just look up VO two max tables at Top End Sports is a good place to do that and then you can see where you actually are. Now, if you want to get a better measure, look, the best thing that you can do is go to an exercise physiology lab and get it tested. It'll probably cost you a couple of hundred bucks, but there's a really good field test that you can do, or an approximate test called the Cooper twelve minute run test. So for this, you need to have a piece of flat ground and something that can measure your distance, like one of those trackers at GPS tracker, or ideally you would go into the gym and use a treadmill, and what you need to do then is find out the maximum distance that you can run in twelve minutes.

So you basically run as fast as you can. Obviously, do a.

So you basically run as fast as you can. Obviously, do a.

Warm up first and then you start running. So the treadmill, you want to start it pretty quickly, or have the first minute of just a warm up and then start it at a minute and note the distance at that time, and then you run for twelve more minutes and you find the distance if you've done the minute warm up, you want to take that distance off, or you can just start cold on it and go straight into it. But it's basically, or if you're outside, it's the maximum distance that you can run in twelve minutes. And then you go to a website which I will put in the show notes, and you can enter it in the data in and that will give you a pretty damned good estimate of your video too. Now let's talk about training it. So in terms of training it, and basically there are a couple of things that we need to do in order to get the best.

Warm up first and then you start running. So the treadmill, you want to start it pretty quickly, or have the first minute of just a warm up and then start it at a minute and note the distance at that time, and then you run for twelve more minutes and you find the distance if you've done the minute warm up, you want to take that distance off, or you can just start cold on it and go straight into it. But it's basically, or if you're outside, it's the maximum distance that you can run in twelve minutes. And then you go to a website which I will put in the show notes, and you can enter it in the data in and that will give you a pretty damned good estimate of your video too. Now let's talk about training it. So in terms of training it, and basically there are a couple of things that we need to do in order to get the best.

Impact on it.

Impact on it.

Now, if you're not very fit at all, you want to start with a reasonable aerobic base, and for this it's really good to use heart rate training. Now, heart rate training, I will put a caveat on it. It's really good if you know your max heart rate. Now, if you don't know your max heart rate, there's a couple of formula out there. Two twenty minus your age is one formula. Or two hundred and eight minus zero point seven times your age is another formula that's maybe a little bit accurate, and that will give you an age predicted one. Now, my age predicted max heart rate is actually one hundred and sixty seven. But I know from testing doing a rated exercise test that my max heartrate is one hundred and seventy one, so mine's not too bad. But if you look at Carly's hers is way art her age is predicted. I'm not going to tell you what her ad is predicted, it would be giving away her age, but her max heart rate is about forty beats higher than her age predicted. So for her, using heart rate training based off age predicted is absolute rubbish. If you do that twelve minute round, you've got a heart rate monitor own you'll get pretty close, especially if you are sprinting for the last minute. But that's basically a way to find it as well. And I do not advise using watches for heart rate at high intensities because they are useless. You need a heart rate monitor for that. Now, having said that, if you're willing to invest in a heart rate monitor, and if you kind of roughly know your maximum heart rate, then training in heart.

Now, if you're not very fit at all, you want to start with a reasonable aerobic base, and for this it's really good to use heart rate training. Now, heart rate training, I will put a caveat on it. It's really good if you know your max heart rate. Now, if you don't know your max heart rate, there's a couple of formula out there. Two twenty minus your age is one formula. Or two hundred and eight minus zero point seven times your age is another formula that's maybe a little bit accurate, and that will give you an age predicted one. Now, my age predicted max heart rate is actually one hundred and sixty seven. But I know from testing doing a rated exercise test that my max heartrate is one hundred and seventy one, so mine's not too bad. But if you look at Carly's hers is way art her age is predicted. I'm not going to tell you what her ad is predicted, it would be giving away her age, but her max heart rate is about forty beats higher than her age predicted. So for her, using heart rate training based off age predicted is absolute rubbish. If you do that twelve minute round, you've got a heart rate monitor own you'll get pretty close, especially if you are sprinting for the last minute. But that's basically a way to find it as well. And I do not advise using watches for heart rate at high intensities because they are useless. You need a heart rate monitor for that. Now, having said that, if you're willing to invest in a heart rate monitor, and if you kind of roughly know your maximum heart rate, then training in heart.

Rate zones is really really effective.

Rate zones is really really effective.

So the best actually combination to improve your video to max as quickly as possible is a combination of what we call Zone two training and high intensity interval stuff, and there's a number of different intervals that you can use, but I'll talk about my favorite dinner minute.

So the best actually combination to improve your video to max as quickly as possible is a combination of what we call Zone two training and high intensity interval stuff, and there's a number of different intervals that you can use, but I'll talk about my favorite dinner minute.

So the zone training. Zone one is very.

So the zone training. Zone one is very.

Light stuff that's kind of recovery stuff and very very long runs. That's at fifty to sixty percent of your maximum heart rate. Zone two typically sixty to seventy percent, although some people have slightly different measures for this, but let's just go with this one sixty to seventy percent of your max heart rate. Zone three three is seventy to eighty percent, Zone four is eighty to ninety percent, and zone five is ninety two one hundred percent. So zone one is basically recovery. Zone two actually gives you really good aerobic endurance and for lots of people is pretty damned defective at improving VO two max. And that will get you a fur bit down the line, particularly if you're not fit in terms of improving your VO two max. Typically, zone three that enhances your what's called aerobic par Zone four enhances your anaerobic threshold and improves your high speed endurance. And zone five is basically increases your maximum spent risk but also is really effective the upper end of zone four and zone five are really effective at improving your VO two max, particularly for non responders. So in terms of combinations of training, I want to give you what I think is a really really effective, actually proven way by research of significantly improving your VO two max at any age. And like I said earlier on, if you're not that fit, and doing just zone two training for thirty minutes three times a week will actually get you a really good aerobic base and get you significant improvements in your fitness and actually prepare you for doing the interval stuff, which if you really want to improve it as best as you can, we need to start to add in the intervals.

Light stuff that's kind of recovery stuff and very very long runs. That's at fifty to sixty percent of your maximum heart rate. Zone two typically sixty to seventy percent, although some people have slightly different measures for this, but let's just go with this one sixty to seventy percent of your max heart rate. Zone three three is seventy to eighty percent, Zone four is eighty to ninety percent, and zone five is ninety two one hundred percent. So zone one is basically recovery. Zone two actually gives you really good aerobic endurance and for lots of people is pretty damned defective at improving VO two max. And that will get you a fur bit down the line, particularly if you're not fit in terms of improving your VO two max. Typically, zone three that enhances your what's called aerobic par Zone four enhances your anaerobic threshold and improves your high speed endurance. And zone five is basically increases your maximum spent risk but also is really effective the upper end of zone four and zone five are really effective at improving your VO two max, particularly for non responders. So in terms of combinations of training, I want to give you what I think is a really really effective, actually proven way by research of significantly improving your VO two max at any age. And like I said earlier on, if you're not that fit, and doing just zone two training for thirty minutes three times a week will actually get you a really good aerobic base and get you significant improvements in your fitness and actually prepare you for doing the interval stuff, which if you really want to improve it as best as you can, we need to start to add in the intervals.

Now, there's a.

Now, there's a.

Couple of intervals that I really like. One which is very very proven in the academic literature and in training studies showing improvements and VEO two max and heart function. Is there Norwegian four by four protocol. So this is four intervals of four minutes interspersed with three minutes of rest. So in those work intervals, you want to be getting to ninety to ninety five percent of your maximum heart rate. Now, you obviously do a warm up beforehand and then you go as hard as you can for four minutes. You can do rowing machine, you can do elliptical, you can do a bike, you can do running, you can do outside, you do whatever. Basically, you go as hard as you possibly can for four minutes, and at the end that's what you'll find that you're up around that ninety five percent of your maximum heart rate and it's going to take you a while to get there.

Couple of intervals that I really like. One which is very very proven in the academic literature and in training studies showing improvements and VEO two max and heart function. Is there Norwegian four by four protocol. So this is four intervals of four minutes interspersed with three minutes of rest. So in those work intervals, you want to be getting to ninety to ninety five percent of your maximum heart rate. Now, you obviously do a warm up beforehand and then you go as hard as you can for four minutes. You can do rowing machine, you can do elliptical, you can do a bike, you can do running, you can do outside, you do whatever. Basically, you go as hard as you possibly can for four minutes, and at the end that's what you'll find that you're up around that ninety five percent of your maximum heart rate and it's going to take you a while to get there.

And then what you.

And then what you.

Do at the end of that four minutes is you drop the pace right down and you do recovery low intense thy generally around sixty to seventy percent of your max heart rate, and then you go again. So you do four of those four minute intervals, and it's bloody hard. I can tell you that it is hard. And so with those four intervals of four minutes, that's sixteen minutes of work. And then you have three intervals in between of three minutes each. That's nine minutes. So that's a twenty five minute workout. You're going to want to do a five minute warm up and then a cool down, so there's kind of thirty five minutes all in all right, and at doing that twice a week in conjunction with one or two of the Zone two sessions for thirty minutes plus will be really really effective. Other alternative for the interval, and I actually like to do one of the Norwegian four x fours, and I do another one which is basically a sixty second all out effort, maximum effort for sixty seconds, and then you recover really low intensity for sixty seconds, just sort of moving to clear the lactic acid. And you do that ten times, and it's frigging hard as well. Like they're both hard, there is no getting away from it.

Do at the end of that four minutes is you drop the pace right down and you do recovery low intense thy generally around sixty to seventy percent of your max heart rate, and then you go again. So you do four of those four minute intervals, and it's bloody hard. I can tell you that it is hard. And so with those four intervals of four minutes, that's sixteen minutes of work. And then you have three intervals in between of three minutes each. That's nine minutes. So that's a twenty five minute workout. You're going to want to do a five minute warm up and then a cool down, so there's kind of thirty five minutes all in all right, and at doing that twice a week in conjunction with one or two of the Zone two sessions for thirty minutes plus will be really really effective. Other alternative for the interval, and I actually like to do one of the Norwegian four x fours, and I do another one which is basically a sixty second all out effort, maximum effort for sixty seconds, and then you recover really low intensity for sixty seconds, just sort of moving to clear the lactic acid. And you do that ten times, and it's frigging hard as well. Like they're both hard, there is no getting away from it.

These are hard.

These are hard.

But what we know is that some people are non responders to Zone two training. It doesn't move the needle very much on their VO two max. But all of those people respond really really well with the intervals. And a classic study which showed remodeling of the heart, improving of elasticity of the left ventricle, and significant improvements in VO two max use the product all that I talked about. They did two sessions of thirty minutes of Zone two. They did one longer recovery session at Zone one per week, and they did two intervals per week. They both the two intervals were both the Norwegian, but I like to mix it up one with Norwegian and one with the ten by tens, and you can build it up right. So if you're just getting into them, you might want to start with three intervals for the Norwegian, or if you're doing the sixty second ones, you might want to start with five or six and then build it up over a few sessions. But that is basically a scientifically proven way to significantly increase your VO two MAX in the shorter space of time. Now, if you are a runner, then absolutely you'll be doing zone three and zone four stuff. But if you just want health longevity benefits in VO two max, you really don't need the zone three stuff. You will go go through zone three and zoo through zone for to get to your max Heartrader ninety five percent of it, But it's really that target that we're looking for, that ninety to ninety five percent when you're doing the interval at the end of those intervals.

But what we know is that some people are non responders to Zone two training. It doesn't move the needle very much on their VO two max. But all of those people respond really really well with the intervals. And a classic study which showed remodeling of the heart, improving of elasticity of the left ventricle, and significant improvements in VO two max use the product all that I talked about. They did two sessions of thirty minutes of Zone two. They did one longer recovery session at Zone one per week, and they did two intervals per week. They both the two intervals were both the Norwegian, but I like to mix it up one with Norwegian and one with the ten by tens, and you can build it up right. So if you're just getting into them, you might want to start with three intervals for the Norwegian, or if you're doing the sixty second ones, you might want to start with five or six and then build it up over a few sessions. But that is basically a scientifically proven way to significantly increase your VO two MAX in the shorter space of time. Now, if you are a runner, then absolutely you'll be doing zone three and zone four stuff. But if you just want health longevity benefits in VO two max, you really don't need the zone three stuff. You will go go through zone three and zoo through zone for to get to your max Heartrader ninety five percent of it, But it's really that target that we're looking for, that ninety to ninety five percent when you're doing the interval at the end of those intervals.

That's it for this week. Catch you next time.

That's it for this week. Catch you next time.