CONCONI STRESS TEST
Bike Improvement uses a bicycle ergometer where resistance and time can be set. For this Bike Improvement has written a program making this fully automatic, allowing you to use your own bike. Everything is registered, including heartbeat, performance, time, pedalling frequency and pulse rate. The test also takes into account the data of the test subject (age, weight, resting pulse and maximum pulse).
Price: €45
CONDUCTING THE STRESS TEST
The stress test starts with a warm-up of 15 minutes, cycling at a power of 100 watts. At the end of this warm-up, the ergometer is calibrated.
Afterwards, the test subject starts again with a starting power of 100 watts and a pedal speed of +/- 90 rpm. At the first stage, the test subject is tested for 120 seconds (workload of 12 kJ), to bring the rider to a steady condition. Then the power is increased to 120 watts (for 100 seconds), while the workload (12 kJ) remains constant. This will continue until the rider can't go any further. At the end of the test the data is processed into a graph.
Graph 1 shows the moment when the curve makes a kink. In this case 240 watts at heart rate 179. This is the transfer pulse.
With this data you can now start to determine your tipping point. Graph 2 shows that for every 20 watts of power, the heart rate goes up by 5 to 8 seconds. At a certain point one notices that the heart rate suddenly goes up with only 2 or 3 beats per 20 watts of power. This is the moment one goes into acidification. This is what we call the transshipment pulse. When we now have all the data, everything is stored on our ergometer. We can download and process the data afterwards.
The tipping point is determined on the basis of this data. The table shows, for example, that for every 20 watts of power, the heart rate increases by 5 to 8 seconds. At some point you will notice that the heart rate suddenly increases by 2 to 3 beats per 20 watts. This is when lactic acid build up occurs (transfer pulse).
All this data is stored on the ergometer for further processing. Bike Improvement uses the CompuTrainer ergometer, the best selling ergometer system among renowned triathlon trainers in the United States. Rotor (Q-rings) also use this device to test their oval gears both visually and intuitively, just like the Belgian triathlete Marino Van Hoenacker
PROCESSING OF THE DATA OBTAINED
In the above test, the heart rate is 179. In order to establish a solid foundation, it is important that the rider concerned stays below this limit.
The LSD lower limit (long slow distance) is always 75% of the heart rate. For safety reasons, Bike-Improvement has a lower LSD limit of 72% and an upper LSD limit of 84%. The extensive endurance training runs up to 95% (low extensive: 84% to 90% - high extensive: 90% to 95%). Intensive endurance training runs up to 96% of the heart rate.
Training above the heart rate is only used for competition riders. Bike-Improvement works with short and intensive blocks and sprint training with full recovery.
Example
In the above test we take the heart rate 179 Hsf/m.
The LSD lower zone is 72% of this or 129 Hsf/m.
The LSD upper zone is 84% of this or 150 Hsf/m.
The low-extensive range is 150 to 161 Hsf/m (84-90%) and the high-extensive range is 161 to 170 Hsf/m (90-95%).
WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW YOUR HEART RATE OR TO CARRY OUT A STRESS TEST WITH LACTIC ACID MEASUREMENT?
Then make an appointment now.