http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20050613/lance.html
Lance Armstrong's Winning Ways Revealed
By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News
June 14, 2005 A seven-year medical study on the body and athletic performance of Lance Armstrong provides intriguing clues as to how the champion has become such an unbeatable force in the world of competitive cycling.
Blood, heart, breathing, weight and performance studies all reveal that the six-time consecutive Grand Champion of the Tour de France improved his muscular efficiency a measure of power per pound by 18 percent over the test period, which included his first two Tour de France wins and his bout with testicular cancer.
Edward Coyle, who performed the tests on Armstrong and is director of the Human Performance Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin, credits intense training and weight management, along with the cyclist's mental fortitude and competitive drive.
"Lance is not a genetic freak," Coyle told Discovery News. "I tested other cyclists when Lance was 21 and I don't see why they couldn't have improved their athletic ability in a similar way. Admittedly Lance may have had a genetic head start, but he nurtured his talent through his willingness to train, his mental toughness and his competitive mindset."
Coyle studied Armstrong from ages 21 to 28. It is rare to have a dataset on a single athlete over such a long period.
Findings are published in the latest Journal of Applied Physiology.
During each lab session, Armstrong pedaled a stationary bike, increasing his rate every five minutes until he reached exhaustion. His oxygen intake and respiration were measured and blood samples were taken before and after the workouts.
Over the test period, the cycling champion had an average body weight of 154 pounds, but he lost 15 pounds before winning his first two Tour de France races.
His maximum heart rate also declined during the study, from 207 to 200 beats per minute, meaning that his heart became more efficient.
High oxygen intake benefits athletes because both the cardiovascular system and muscles need oxygen to convert food energy into adenosine triphosphate (ATP) molecules. ATP is what powers cells and fuels all movement.
Coyle reported that Armstrong had a "remarkably high" maximal oxygen uptake level at 61 liters per minute. Most athletes measure in the 50s. The cyclist also had very little lactate in his blood.
Blood lactate, nicknamed "the burn" by athletes, is an acid that researchers believe is linked to fatiguing metabolites, or products of metabolism, in muscle fibers.
Both of these measurements returned to more average figures just after 25-year-old Armstrong underwent testicular and brain surgery, along with chemotherapy, for cancer.
"Cancer led to a setback in terms of loss of training time, but physically it was just a blip in his cardiovascular conditioning," Coyle said. "The tests show that the human body is remarkable in its ability to recover and to allow individuals to pick up where they left off."
Armstrong resumed his three- to six-hour-a-day training, improving his mechanical efficiency a measurement of work accomplished per minute to energy expenditure per minute and his energy expenditure.
Kirsten Burgomaster, a researcher with the Exercise Metabolism Research Group at McMaster University in Canada, took muscle samples during a short period from several student athletes before and after they performed 30-second sprints on stationary bikes.
Her findings also are published in the current Journal of Applied Physiology.
Muscles already showed signs that they could more efficiently use oxygen. Additionally, cycling endurance for the individuals jumped by a rate of 81-169 percent.
"These data demonstrate that brief repeated bouts of very intense exercise can rapidly stimulate improvements in muscle oxidative potential that are comparable to or higher than previously reported aerobic-based training studies of similar duration," wrote Burgomaster and her colleagues.
Lance Armstrong's Winning Ways Revealed
By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News
June 14, 2005 A seven-year medical study on the body and athletic performance of Lance Armstrong provides intriguing clues as to how the champion has become such an unbeatable force in the world of competitive cycling.
Blood, heart, breathing, weight and performance studies all reveal that the six-time consecutive Grand Champion of the Tour de France improved his muscular efficiency a measure of power per pound by 18 percent over the test period, which included his first two Tour de France wins and his bout with testicular cancer.
Edward Coyle, who performed the tests on Armstrong and is director of the Human Performance Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin, credits intense training and weight management, along with the cyclist's mental fortitude and competitive drive.
"Lance is not a genetic freak," Coyle told Discovery News. "I tested other cyclists when Lance was 21 and I don't see why they couldn't have improved their athletic ability in a similar way. Admittedly Lance may have had a genetic head start, but he nurtured his talent through his willingness to train, his mental toughness and his competitive mindset."
Coyle studied Armstrong from ages 21 to 28. It is rare to have a dataset on a single athlete over such a long period.
Findings are published in the latest Journal of Applied Physiology.
During each lab session, Armstrong pedaled a stationary bike, increasing his rate every five minutes until he reached exhaustion. His oxygen intake and respiration were measured and blood samples were taken before and after the workouts.
Over the test period, the cycling champion had an average body weight of 154 pounds, but he lost 15 pounds before winning his first two Tour de France races.
His maximum heart rate also declined during the study, from 207 to 200 beats per minute, meaning that his heart became more efficient.
High oxygen intake benefits athletes because both the cardiovascular system and muscles need oxygen to convert food energy into adenosine triphosphate (ATP) molecules. ATP is what powers cells and fuels all movement.
Coyle reported that Armstrong had a "remarkably high" maximal oxygen uptake level at 61 liters per minute. Most athletes measure in the 50s. The cyclist also had very little lactate in his blood.
Blood lactate, nicknamed "the burn" by athletes, is an acid that researchers believe is linked to fatiguing metabolites, or products of metabolism, in muscle fibers.
Both of these measurements returned to more average figures just after 25-year-old Armstrong underwent testicular and brain surgery, along with chemotherapy, for cancer.
"Cancer led to a setback in terms of loss of training time, but physically it was just a blip in his cardiovascular conditioning," Coyle said. "The tests show that the human body is remarkable in its ability to recover and to allow individuals to pick up where they left off."
Armstrong resumed his three- to six-hour-a-day training, improving his mechanical efficiency a measurement of work accomplished per minute to energy expenditure per minute and his energy expenditure.
Kirsten Burgomaster, a researcher with the Exercise Metabolism Research Group at McMaster University in Canada, took muscle samples during a short period from several student athletes before and after they performed 30-second sprints on stationary bikes.
Her findings also are published in the current Journal of Applied Physiology.
Muscles already showed signs that they could more efficiently use oxygen. Additionally, cycling endurance for the individuals jumped by a rate of 81-169 percent.
"These data demonstrate that brief repeated bouts of very intense exercise can rapidly stimulate improvements in muscle oxidative potential that are comparable to or higher than previously reported aerobic-based training studies of similar duration," wrote Burgomaster and her colleagues.
