The Beep Test Doesn’t Care Your Fitness Level
I found out lately after attempting The Beep Test for the first time that it does not discriminate. In actual fact the beep test does not even care anything about you!
So no matter whether you’re tremendous match or even a sofa potato, everyone that does the beep test will end up in the same point, out of breath and at the limits of their cardio vascular capability.
The truth that the beep test is the most commonly utilized check to measure a individuals cardiovascular levels and VO2 max (maximum oxygen uptake) should be indication sufficient that this can be a gruelling test for anyone that attempts it. The question is, how lengthy can you last prior to you attain your cardio exhaustion stage.
To my understanding there has never been anybody who was in a position to fully complete the 21 levels that make up the beep test, however you will find rumours going around that there have really been some athletes complete all levels. The bottom line is that it would take a super human to achieve this and congratulations to anyone which has completed it but personally I discover it difficult to think. Here in Australia, our leading Australian Guidelines Footballers would get someplace in the vicinity of degree 15 or 16 and maybe 17 which is considered a top effort.
As talked about in the start of this post, becoming the curious kind and by no means getting done a beep test before I thought I would give it a go to see what level I could get to.
Just for the report, I’m in my late 30’s, been associated with sports activities all my existence and try to maintain pretty energetic. On average I’ll do some kind of coaching 2-3 times a week which might consist of a couple of bike rides for two-three hrs each, or perhaps a few of 1 hour runs or perhaps a mixture of a ride along with a run and I’ll stroll the dog most days. I should also put a caveat right here to say that my training suffers badly if its cold or raining (pathetic I understand).
So even though I wouldn’t call myself an elite athlete I’m certainly no couch potato so my expectations of a good score had been fairly higher.
In order to total the beep test you’ll need a flat non-slip floor at a duration of 20metres between ends. I used a few cones placed at each end and I also downloaded a copy with the beep test audio as an mp3 file so I could play it on my iPod which I hooked as much as some external speakers so I could effortlessly listen to the sound with the beeps obviously.
With everything setup and some nervous power from your anticipation I pressed play and off I went.
The first three to four levels had been pretty comfy for me as they were beneath my normal jogging pace and then from level four to eight because the tempo quickened for every level I was getting more unpleasant with my coronary heart rate growing steadily and my breathing turning into much more laboured. Then from level eight to 10 the heart charge climbed very quickly and it acquired extremely challenging till finally I had to cease at degree 10. I believe I would have stopped previously however I was decided to at the least get to degree 10!
I have to admit that I was quite disappointed my score particularly considering that up until degree 8 I was not beneath any actual cardio stress. Being fairly a detailed individual, I wanted to get to the bottom of why I only acquired to degree 10.
I enlisted the help of my greatest mate who is a personal coach and has encounter in coaching individuals for the beep test to obtain to the bottom of why I bombed out when I did.
Following searching in the beep test data and then going back again over the data from my training rides and training runs we had been in a position to determine that almost all of my training is done at lengthy distances and at a rate of 70-80% of my optimum coronary heart rate. I hardly ever get my heart charge up to close to its maximum and when I do its usually only in brief bursts (generally sprinting at the finish).
So the advice from my mate was if I wanted to improve my beep test score, then I’d need to do some particular coaching at higher intensity to extend my capability to prolong exercising at a higher coronary heart rate.
