“You are witnessing a spectrum of VO2peak in two days. Some extreme cases are tested here.” Dr. Griffith sensed my excitement and smiled at me.
Today, we have a physical therapist fellowship session, testing the VO2 peak of two athlete volunteers at Northwestern University. One volunteer, Damon, is a runner who runs marathons in under 2 hours and 30 minutes. The other volunteer, Zach, is a basketball player.
There is a series of steps before the testing itself: height, weight, resting heart rate, and blood pressure in sitting position and standing position, a questionnaire clearing pain, injury, and other medical conditions that potentially change the accuracy of the test result, and a 5 minutes warm up. Then, the subject wears a mouth-breathing piece and starts to put more and more effort into the treadmill or on the bike. The whole testing process lasts for around 15 to 20 minutes with every 2 minutes 2 percent incline increase on the treadmill and every minute 25 to 35 watts increase on a bike until the subject reaches their maximum effort.
The VO2peak results contrast between today’s athletes and yesterday’s Parkinson’s patient is staggeringly huge. I can’t help but think if someone with Parkinson’s is not living a sedentary lifestyle and reaches the fitness level of one of these athletes, what their disease trajectory would be like.
