Anaerobic Threshold Quotes

Though Graded Exercise helps some, the ME Association reports 74 per cent of ME patients are harmed by the therapy, with some made permanently disabled. Dr Julia Newton ran electrical pulses through muscle biopsies; Dr Van Ness tested anaerobic thresholds of ME patients – both studies demonstrated ME patients are damaged by exercise.

It’s true that many ADHD kids are more active than their peers—studies show they have less body fat, on average—and I see plenty of adults with ADHD who are already exercising. But they need to be doing more, and on a regular basis. In general, I tell my patients to make every effort to institute a regimen of daily exercise—or at least during the five weekdays, when they need to focus at school or work. Dishman’s study suggests that submaximal exercise, which would be 65 to 75 percent of maximum heart rate, is more effective with girls, while more vigorous exercise (just below the anaerobic threshold, which I’ll explain in chapter 10) works better for boys. We don’t really have parallel data for adults, but from what I’ve seen, it’s important to get the heart rate up there—maybe 75 percent of your maximum for twenty or thirty minutes. For ADHD in particular, the complex, focus-intensive sports such as martial arts and gymnastics are a great way to tax the brain. By engaging every element of the attention system, it holds you rapt. These sports are just more interesting than running on a treadmill, and participation tends to be self-perpetuating—it’s easier to stick with

The running pace that corresponds to VO2 max is an all-out effort of 8 minutes, which is a running speed well above your anaerobic threshold. During the first 1.5-2 minutes, you are below 100% of your VO2 max because it takes approximately that much time to reach 100% VO2 max from a standstill start when running at this speed. However, after that initial period, you are running with the maximum amount of oxygen that your body canintake and utilize. It's an extremely demanding effort that cannot be sustained for much longer than this time frame.

Regarding the running pace at which the anaerobic threshold occurs, it represents the maximum running effort or speed that you can sustain for 1 hour. The heart rate that corresponds to this effort typically falls within the range of 88% to 92% of your maximum heart rate. For untrained individuals, it may be closer to 85%, but with proper training, it tends to increase to somewhere within the 88% to 92% range.

At rest, your body consumes a specific amount of oxygen to sustain its functions. As you begin to exercise, oxygen consumption increases, and the higher the intensity of running, the greater the amount of oxygen you take in and utilize. Up until the anaerobic threshold, the amount of oxygen consumed is sufficient for your body to produce energy aerobically. What occurs above the anaerobic threshold is that oxygen consumption doesn't decrease, but rather continues to increase until reaching the point of VO2 max, which represents the maximum amount of oxygen your body can take in. Although oxygen intake is higher than the amount consumed at the anaerobic threshold or below, it is insufficient for muscles to generate energy exclusively through aerobic metabolism. As a result, while the aerobic energy system operates at an elevated rate due to the increased oxygen intake at higher intensities, the anaerobic lactic system supplements the additional energy demand that the aerobic system cannot fully meet.

The athletes of most team sports should train at intensities equal to or below their anaerobic threshold. Intensities higher than the anaerobic threshold are not typically necessary for sports with lower metabolic demands during a game, such as American football, baseball, or volleyball. In contrast, for sports with higher metabolic demands, such as soccer or rugby, intensities above the anaerobic threshold should be included only in small amounts and for brief durations to avoid negative adaptations that could harm the sport's performance.