Pulse oximeter for training

Triathlon Forum
1

Just curious, anyone used a pulse oximeter for training, or for measuring morning 02 and resting HR levels?

2

Your just making up words arent you? I just tried to use oximeter in words with friends and it did not accept it.

3

???

http://bit.ly/WYIGvh
.

4

Just curious, anyone used a pulse oximeter for training, or for measuring morning 02 and resting HR levels?

I have athletes who use them for their altitude tents and VO2max intervals, or hypoxic lower intensity intervals. Not much point for training other than near VO2max or at altitude. Granted, if you need one, you’re probably not going hard enough. IN other words, going until you almost pass out, or pass out is as good as a pulse ox.

5

I bought one from RestWise about a month ago.

Right now it sits on my night stand and I check my HR in the morning before I get up. Right now I am just trying to establish a baseline during the off season.

My thought or hunch is that once I get into heavier training this summer for Ironman Wisconsin I can use the pulse oximeter to measure resting HR in the mornings and if I notice it is significantly higher than it is should be then I will adjust my training that day or take the day off.

At this point I am just experimenting with mine, if you know of any other uses for it I am all ears.

6

I have considered one for those exact reasons. To see my resting heart rate before the feet even touch the ground. Not sure what I could use the O2 info for but may be able to find something else to track! Im a data nerd for sure.

7

FWIW, on the subject of resting HR, my HR is significantly lower if I empty my bladder first.

Wake up, take a whizz, get back in bed and check the HR. Can be worth as much as 10 bpm for me.

But agree that a pulse oximeter is a quick and easy way to check your resting HR w/o having to strap on the chest strap, etc.

8

Just curious, anyone used a pulse oximeter for training, or for measuring morning 02 and resting HR levels?

I have athletes who use them for their altitude tents and VO2max intervals, or hypoxic lower intensity intervals. Not much point for training other than near VO2max or at altitude. Granted, if you need one, you’re probably not going hard enough. IN other words, going until you almost pass out, or pass out is as good as a pulse ox.

Thanks Steve,

I tested an athlete who had mild COPD and he had massive lung volume for his size (180 liters per minute) but lowish O2 for that VE (VO2 max of 62) he’s about 150lbs and still races in the 5 hour range for HIM (pretty damn good for what he’s been stuck with)

The thing is he goes anaerobic pretty early (hits 100% RER)

I was wondering if he could use something like this to gauge his day to day resting values and plan his easy/hard days. We were also exploring certain training strategies that will help him get faster, given his condition.

9

I have considered one for those exact reasons. To see my resting heart rate before the feet even touch the ground. Not sure what I could use the O2 info for but may be able to find something else to track! Im a data nerd for sure.

I was wondering about the O2 data day to day as well, maybe if you have low O2 values in the morning it could point to dehydration or possibly the start of Iron loss?

Not sure, thanks for posting.

10

low iron is something i would imagine you’d slowly tend towards and performance would be clearly down
.

11

Hey Maurice,

Here is some general info from the FaCT website regarding pulse oximeters. I’m sure you could chat with Juerg about the best uses.

http://www.fact-canada.com/Sportstat/sportstat-pulse-oximeter.html

12

low iron is something i would imagine you’d slowly tend towards and performance would be clearly down

Agree, but sometimes athletes will try to push through low iron thinking that they are just “breaking the plateau” or that they should just suck it up and keep training.

Iron loss is easy to diagnose but never seams to be diagnosed early or on time (Paula Findlay, Canadian world MTB champ Catherine Pendral) It seams that even the best elite athletes can ruin a season or Olympic cycle due to low Iron

Maybe this would point them in the right direction earlier and get them to their doc asap to do an iron/blood test.

When we re-test an athletes VO2 max if there is a low O2 count but normal power values and VE/HR values then it “may” point to low iron/RBC values and we ask people to get it checked/talk to the doc, to at least eliminate it as probable cause.

13

Probably a waste of money. You can take your pulse with your fingers and a clock. If as a healthy athlete without lung problems your O2 sat is ever less than say 97% you might want to see a doc. I can’t imagine you would get any useful info out of it.

14

Thanks Pete,

I talked to Juerg for quite a while when I bought my BL stuff, smart guy but has a way of explaining things so guys like me can understand it.

Silver Star open yet? Just waxing the skis…

15

No problem, Maurice. No significant snow on Silver Star yet but I would expect nordic to be open within a few weeks. Bring on winter!

16

i borrowed one from a friend to see what effect I would see on longer vo2 intervals, as I was trying to see if i needed to go a step further with the cardiac doc on my ASD. ASD identified years ago as minor and brought up again in latest echo as minor and all doc said was they could check O2 levels on the treadmill, but I don’t run. So I took it on a ride and checked out an interval. nothing out of ordinary.

put it on kids later and watched their hummingbird HRs. 100+ at rest.

i dont see the point in having one for any day to day activity, the person who let me use it had it for his passive hypoxic stuff, which he has since seen the light on being no benefit in doing

17

Signed up for Restwise, but been spotty with putting data in.

My numbers are always around 97 to 98, but don’t know what it means to me. Don’t know what to look out for.

18

I have considered one for those exact reasons. To see my resting heart rate before the feet even touch the ground. Not sure what I could use the O2 info for but may be able to find something else to track! Im a data nerd for sure.

I was wondering about the O2 data day to day as well, maybe if you have low O2 values in the morning it could point to dehydration or possibly the start of Iron loss?

Not sure, thanks for posting.

You will not have low O2 values in the morning or any other time of the day. You could track it, but you would find it unchanged every day. Oxygen saturation is approximately 98% at sea level and does not change from day to day. This will only change with altitude, not with training status, recovery, overtraining, diet, fitness etc. Unless you are playing around with altitude (i.e., altitude tent), there is absolutely no reason to measure O2 saturation.

19

Just curious, anyone used a pulse oximeter for training, or for measuring morning 02 and resting HR levels?

I have athletes who use them for their altitude tents and VO2max intervals, or hypoxic lower intensity intervals. Not much point for training other than near VO2max or at altitude. Granted, if you need one, you’re probably not going hard enough. IN other words, going until you almost pass out, or pass out is as good as a pulse ox.

Thanks Steve,

I tested an athlete who had mild COPD and he had massive lung volume for his size (180 liters per minute) but lowish O2 for that VE (VO2 max of 62) he’s about 150lbs and still races in the 5 hour range for HIM (pretty damn good for what he’s been stuck with)

The thing is he goes anaerobic pretty early (hits 100% RER)

I was wondering if he could use something like this to gauge his day to day resting values and plan his easy/hard days. We were also exploring certain training strategies that will help him get faster, given his condition.

I think you are confusing anaerobic with reduced blood O2 saturation. They are completely different things, as is RER. RER is the CO2 produced / O2 consumed ratio. RER is determined by fuel burn (fat VS carbohydrates) and acid buffering (non metabolic production of CO2 by the bicarbonate buffering system). RER has nothing to do with oxygen saturation at sea level. Oxygen saturation should still be 98% (resting, sea level value) at an RER of 1.0. Even at VO2 max, the vast majority of people will not desaturate.

At rest you should not see any change from day to day because resting values would be approximately 98% unless you change altitude. There would be no value in tracking oxygen saturation unless you are varying altitude.

20

Just curious, anyone used a pulse oximeter for training, or for measuring morning 02 and resting HR levels?

I have athletes who use them for their altitude tents and VO2max intervals, or hypoxic lower intensity intervals. Not much point for training other than near VO2max or at altitude. Granted, if you need one, you’re probably not going hard enough. IN other words, going until you almost pass out, or pass out is as good as a pulse ox.

Thanks Steve,

I tested an athlete who had mild COPD and he had massive lung volume for his size (180 liters per minute) but lowish O2 for that VE (VO2 max of 62) he’s about 150lbs and still races in the 5 hour range for HIM (pretty damn good for what he’s been stuck with)

The thing is he goes anaerobic pretty early (hits 100% RER)

I was wondering if he could use something like this to gauge his day to day resting values and plan his easy/hard days. We were also exploring certain training strategies that will help him get faster, given his condition.

I think you are confusing anaerobic with reduced blood O2 saturation. They are completely different things, as is RER. RER is the CO2 produced / O2 consumed ratio. RER is determined by fuel burn (fat VS carbohydrates) and acid buffering (non metabolic production of CO2 by the bicarbonate buffering system). RER has nothing to do with oxygen saturation at sea level. Oxygen saturation should still be 98% (resting, sea level value) at an RER of 1.0. Even at VO2 max, the vast majority of people will not desaturate.

At rest you should not see any change from day to day because resting values would be approximately 98% unless you change altitude. There would be no value in tracking oxygen saturation unless you are varying altitude.

Thanks Mike,

I wasn’t sure how O2 saturation would or would not de-couple at higher intensities, I think I was also confusing saturation with hemoglobin levels. What I am taking away is that:

  1. Saturation is independent of hemoglobin levels and therefore an athlete could have normal values in the 96-98% range but still suffer from Iron loss, anemia, low rbc etc.

  2. An athlete with mild COPD issues will have a low O2 saturation level but it will just be chronically low at rest and during variable training intensities so checking saturation levels, at least from a training perspective has little value in this situation.

  3. Use them for altitude but otherwise O2 levels, should remain constant in healthy athletes across intensities from sleep to VO2 max. There fore outside of altitude work, these don’t provide a useful data point.

Is this correct?