"Are you claustrophobic?" was the first thing Scott White of Personal Power Training asked me before we started the test. I'm not so I didn't think I would have a problem. Sadly, I was wrong.
I noticed lots of high-tech gadgets when I walked in the room – my kind of place! Scott weighed me, took my blood pressure and entered some data into the computer. He then started to fit the apparatus on my head. This picture is NOT me but the apparatus was exactly the same.
Notice the blue mouthpiece that I was supposed to breathe through and the blue clips pinching the nose. Well, it wasn't the most comfortable (or the most fashionable!) but I dealt with it.
I started walking on the treadmill – a slow walk – and just about 30 seconds into it, I felt like I couldn't breathe. I felt like I was suffocating. I pulled the whole thing off my head and said I couldn't do it. Scott calmed me down until I was ready to try it again. We got everything all connected again and I started walking. I felt that same panicky feeling but I calmed myself and worked through it. I felt successful. I was going to be able to do this!
Every minute or so, Scott adjusted the speed and/or incline to make me work harder. About 7 minutes into the test, I felt panicky again and this time I seriously could not go on. I pulled everything off again and said I just couldn't finish the test. I hope to be able to work myself up to go do the test again (and finish it) sometime in the future.
Have you had your VO2 tested? What was your experience?
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3 comments:
I've had it done twice and my experience was the same without the panic attack. It's a bit disconcerting and my thing was making sure I didn't exhale accidentally through my nose.
But if you're an athlete who likes to do it "by the numbers", this is one test you can't cheat the results on; they're yours!
I've had pulmonary function testing done in a booth once. However, it was not anything like process you went through. Good for you for trying to be persistent. Sounds tough!
I don't have much to say anything because I don't have such experience before. However, I believe I can go through. This is because I believe in.
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