If your local NHS hospital offered VO2 Max testing at commercialy competitive prices, would you get yours tested, or is it only for Elite athletes?

Be interesting to know, but what are you gonna do with it?

I’d be interested to know why the local NHS hospital was offering VO2max testing on a commercial basis.

Also, there are plenty sub maximal vo2 testing protocols which give a reasonably accurate estimation of VO2max.

Viz top tip: Find your local sporty uni or maybe college. They will have students doing dissertations on vo2 and you can get them for free.

The tests are good to find out where you are on terms of basic ability. They are of most use if you race even if it’s at a low level, but in any situation they help you know more about how to judge effort.

I’d be interested to know why the local NHS hospital was offering VO2max testing on a commercial basis.

The kit is relatively expensive, but does not get used 24hrs a day. So while the kit is sat around doing nothing, it could be used to generate income. See you try and do some thing efficient with the NHS, and then people try and say you shouldnt be efficient 😆

So while the kit is sat around doing nothing, it could be used to generate income

What about the staffing?

What about the staffing?

Staff can be employed.

Where would the profit go? Who pays for breakages and who pays to replace the kit at the end of its shortrned life?

I think it’s a good idea, just dont think that people should be able to make profit from the NHS.

I think it’s a good idea, just dont think that people should be able to make profit from the NHS.

Who would make a profit? Wouldn’t it go back into the NHS?

The profit stays within the hospital.

I know NHS management is sh!t according to most people, but actually some do know what they are doing….

However the cost of kit/staff/maintenance etc is factored in to the business case, and if it doesnt stack up then it doesnt happen.

In that case fill you boots.

What if the equipment is needed to test someone whose actually sick but it’s in use producing external revenue.
The guy who’s dying will be put into another waiting list until a slit becomes available.
I know, when there’s a free bed they could turn the ward into a hostel.

The guy who’s dying will be put into another waiting list until a slit becomes available.

I am in no way clinical, but if some guy is dying, I dont think you are going to ask them to do a VO2 Max test…unless you want to hastenm their departure.

Come on try harder. If there was any risk to patient safety this sort of thing wouldnt be considered.

But as a service 99% of customers would need to know what to do with the results. Yes you have the equipment and ability to perform the tests, but then what?

Swedish a very fair point, and kind of hence where the original question came from.

I would assume for a keen amateur sports person VO2 max would be useful if they are following a training programme, and as you say know what to do with the results.

Thats where the NHS expertese doesnt sit with training ‘athletes’.

Unfortunately V02max isn’t really that useful. I can’t use it in a race or training, and there is a very strong line of thought that says you can’t really train it up either as its genetically determined to a greater extent.

Knowing what power I was outputting and what my HR was doing and how much latic my body was producing at set points during the test could be useful if someone was able to explain to me and then base a training/race strategy around those numbers, however i wouldn’t by default assume that the NHS could do that any better than Nick down the road who has 3 international vests and 4 national champ titles to his name.

As per the Swedish Chef. I’ve done a VO2 max test… while it was an interesting number it didn’t actually help me with training. I’ve also done a lactate threshold test compared to HR and Power. That was much more helpful but you really need to do several over time to see how things are changing.

I also do FTP tests on trainer road and in IMHO they are just as helpful for the (very) amateur athlete like me when compared to VO2 and Lactate. They also have the advantage of considerably cheaper and easier to do in my own home (once I’d purchased a power meter which wasn’t all that cheap).

What he said –^

From my basic understanding, it’s just a number, you can train it up if you’re unfit, and monitor it over time to see the effect of training, but you can’t really do anything with it whilst actualy training.

Unlike say power, which gives you a nice curve to show your thresholds at various time durations which is closer to real life, you don’t just jump up through 5 or 6 discreet zones. If yout to know if your VO2max is above/below what it should be, look in the “trainig with a power meter book” at the table, if your 5min power is further up than your threshold, then you’re distorted slightly that way, if it’s on a lower line you could probably train it up a bit (or maybe your Bradley Wiggins).

From my basic understanding, it’s just a number, you can train it up if you’re unfit, and monitor it over time to see the effect of training, but you can’t really do anything with it whilst actualy training.

In an individual session you are correct you can do very little with it. But over the course of a training programme you can see how much your VO2 max has increased.

I once did back to back VO2max tests and it was interesting to see how much of a change there was between tests. That information led to me doing a lot more training for endurance.