Our manchester based sports perfomance testing lab is ideal for endurance athletes that want an accurate measure of their current fitness. Using our state of the art equipment we are able to accurately pinpoint areas for you to work on, what we refer to as 'performance limiters'. Our assessment days last approximately 2-3 hours and are ideal for cyclists, runners and triathletes of all abilities. We work with individuals new to sport who are looking to take on a new challenge, right through to elite level world class athletes. 

Today we want to explain a little more about the pioneering a new assessment method which has greatly improved our understanding of what commonly limits the athletes we see. Over recent months we have been measuring oxygen uptake (using our metabolic cart - the test where you wear a mask over your face) and muscle oxygen sensors (small devices placed on your working muscles) at the same time during a classic step test.  

During classic testing methods, where we measured V02 max and ventilatory thresholds (often call aerobic and anaerobic thresholds) we started to add our muscle oxygen sensors (MOXY) so we could better understand how the activity of our muscles impacted the classic heart and respiratory responses. What we discovered has really changed the way we assess and coach athletes as we now believe the limitations we identify during sports testing are a result of problems we observe down at the muscle level.

Before we explain the findings we should sumarise some basic physiolgicla principles;

• muscle compression comprimises blood flow and oxygenation of the muscle.