Has anyone heard of the BORG Scale?

I was just tested for my VO2 Max and they sent me a chart in BORG Scale.

Apparently it consist of three zones on a 6 to 20 point scale. With 6 being very easy and 20 being exhaustion.

While I was taking the test about every three minutes they had me point to the number that indicated my level of "pain".

6-11 being Zone One- Light Aerobic - Baseline/Recovery - Fuel Source Fat
12 - 16 Zone Two- Harder Aerobic/Lively Fuel Source - Mixed Fuel

16 being Threshold Fuel Source- Glucose/Glycogen

17-20 Zone 3 - Anaerobic Fuel Source- Muscle Glycogen (Lactate Accumulation)

This test show how much I suck and how much I need to lose weight.

My Weight 234.52

My Max heart rate was 167 bpm - When I am going up a hill my heart will go up to around 180 bpm - maybe I did not push my self hard enough.

My AT was 155 bpm

And my VO2 max was 28.82 VO2/kg STPD L/min.

Power 252 watts

What really up set me about my numbers is that my VO2 max indicate me as "untrained". I have been busting my butt on my trainer almost every day and I have been seeing some good results on group rides and losing weight.

They suggested that I come back and get tested after I lose 10 lbs. Apparently weight and Vo2 max are key components.

buddy

Your number is not a VO2 max score. It's just a number that came up on a screen while you were exercising. VO2 max means maximum exertion. If your not totally going for it, it's not your max.
Every time I was tested (college years) my HR made it over 210.
The units used for VO2 are ml/kg/min. Increase your O2/CO2 exchange, or decrease your weight, and the number goes up.

The BORG scale is a good way of measuring perceived exertion, but good lab techs should be able to tell if a subject is maxing out.

RPE is a good tool for judging your effort while exercising. For the VO2 test, you really just need to look at HR. The RPE should correlate, but a lot of people need to "calibrate" their RPE scale to be able to use it well.

As for low VO2: it's mL/kg/min, which means that since your weight is high, your VO2 max will appear low. It is quite skewed by weight.

As for the Borg scale being 6 to 20, it was originally designed to roughly correspond to HR (a factor of ten). The rough range of HR is 60 to 200 in an adult.

Obviously your MHR is not 167; it's at least 180. If you didn't get to MHR, your other numbers are off. Did the tester stop you at 167 or did you stop yourself? If the tester stopped you based on an age based formula, you should demand your money back and go see someone who knows what they're doing. If you stopped yourself, then you're right; you didn't push yourself hard enough.

There are "sub maximal" Vo2Max tests. I don't know the protocol but they run you up so far then calculate the Vo2max from there. It's probably less accurate than a maximal test. I have seen it used at health clubs.
But since vo2max is pretty much useless as a training number, the accuracy of the vo2max number isn't important. I like how they give a number accurate to two decimal places when it's a guess based on a table. I agree that 28 sounds low.

What time was that power number for? Power by itself is useless, you also need the time. I.e. power for 5 seconds, 5 minutes, 60 minutes. You can maintain a lot more power for 5 seconds than for an hour because you can use anaerobic energy sources. An FTP (60 minute) power of 252 would be about right for a recreational rider your size. There's ways of estimating FTP without doing a 60 minute time trial.

I stopped. I did not understand the instructions. They told me to maintain a constant cadenced. My cadenced was 90 rpm when I got to the point I could not maintain that cadenced I stopped. The lab tech told me I should have keep going.

Not time I will know better.

This is the document that I received from the testing center. I hope that you can read it. The testing center is a research facility. They are currently doing testing for Gator Aid study to see how Gator Aid affects long tern endurance. I did not pay for the report so I can't complain.

Based on this information I have re-set my heart rate zones. I divided the reports Zone 1 into zones 1 & 2 and divided reports zone 2 into zones 3 & 4 with reports zone 3 being zone 5.