The human body is a repository of physical patterns: heartbeats, muscle movements, neural activity, cyclic temperature changes, and more. These patterns contain information rich messages that can be excavated, refined, and decoded. To do so we need sophisticated tools and interfaces to effectively access and evaluate such information. The multidisciplinary…

In a previous article titled, Critical Power: Modeling The Power-Duration Curve, I introduced the critical power model, which aims to provide us with a useful way of modeling time to exhaustion in athletes as well as quantifying changes in both fitness characteristics and performance. One of the most fascinating things…

You Have It All Backwards! This article is a companion piece to my previous articles titled, A Paradigm Shift in Bioenergetics and Applied Bioenergetics. In discussions about energy systems, coaches often make rigid distinctions between the different modes of energy production, discussing anaerobic and aerobic metabolism as if they are…

This article is a companion piece to my previous article titled, Training The Delivery Limited Athlete. As with training delivery limited athletes, we can also sub-categorize respiratory limited athletes training into a handful of classifications including foundations, tier one energy system training interventions, and tier two energy system training interventions. …

In discussions about an individual’s oxygen kinetic profiles we’ll often hear talk of different energetic limitations, rates of maximal oxygen extraction, maximal vasodilator capacity of skeletal muscle, and muscle fiber composition. Seldom do discussions of an individual’s genetics come into play. The reasons for this are likely twofold: Direct-to-consumer genetic…

An Introduction To The Impulse-Response Model In the book Antifragile, Nassim Taleb tells the story of a king who, in a fit of rage, declares that his son must be punished for a misdeed and that the punishment will consist of having a boulder dropped on his head, which would…

Mechanisms, Insights, and Applications Blood flow regulation is one of the most interesting aspects of human physiology. When we perform high intensity exercise we utilize oxygen at a greater rate than it can be supplied to the skeletal muscle, and as a result there is a net deoxygenation of the…

Every time I see a training chart like the one featured on the bottom of the screen that lists energy systems with associated durations, I get utterly perplexed. …

As exercise load increases, muscle oxygen saturation in the working muscles will decrease. As a result, NIRS is commonly used to assess skeletal muscle oxygen kinetics during high intensity exercise. In the picture above we have NIRS data from a Sanctional level Crossfit athlete performing a high turnover 10 round…