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CardioFitness Equipment Conconi test: determining anaerobic treshold

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The easiest way to determine your anaerobic threshold, is by listening to your breathing. Just when you’re starting to wheeze, you’re around that threshold. A lot more reliable is the Conconi test. This is a sports medicine test, intended to measure someone’s maximum anaerobic and aerobic threshold heart rates.

This test measures heart rates at different loads (like faster speeds on a treadmill). Points are plotted on a graph, and the inflection point (when concave turns into convex or other way around) indicates the aerobic threshold.

After that, the test keeps continuing under increasing loads, until the anaerobic threshold has been hit.

What do you need for this test? A 400m track, a heart rate monitor, and someone who wants to note your interval times with the heart rates at that time.

How? First do a warming-up of 20 minutes. After this, the test will begin. The goal is to run about 2-3 seconds faster every 200m. So don’t start running to slow or too fast from the beginning! You should have 12-16 200m interval times, meaning you should run for about 10-12 minutes.

For example: beginners start the 200m in 75 seconds, athletes in 60 seconds. After each 200m, the interval time and heart rate is written down (by the person who helps you). You keep on going faster, until you start to wheeze. At that time, you run above your anaerobic treshold.

Processing the data?

First work out what the km/hour (or miles/hour) distances are, per 200m. The formula is: speed = 720 / time.

After that, you put the data in heart rate/speed graphic. Try to draw a good straight line through the coordinates. Your heart rate will rise linearly until it’s reached the treshold. The twist in the curve will be the inflection point.

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