Efficient Workouts: Getting Training Right

Chances are, you’ve been doing the same training routine for months, or years, and chances are, there’s a better–or more efficient–routine out there, if only you could find it. But how? Well, you could consult Chris Eschbach, an assistant professor of exercise and sport science at Meredith College Human Performance Laboratory. Eschbach, who also happens to be a triathlete, will put you on a treadmill and start measuring. He’ll measure your respiritory gases, heart rate, blood pressure and blood samples, and he’ll figure out your lactate threshold/training zone, which indicates at what heart rates you’re training aerobically — when the muscles use oxygen for prolonged, less-intense activities — or anaerobically — when the muscles don’t use oxygen for energy, such as when weight lifting or sprinting. What Eschbach does, why he does it, and what he learns is very nicely explained in this story in the L.A Times, which warns, most importantly, that many of us don’t train hard enough, and many of us train way too hard.