Lactate Testing
Our lactate testing protocols are designed to be done on your own equipment, in your own training environment. This means the data we gather is highly accurate and directly relevant to your individual physiology, helping you train smarter and more efficiently. Starting from just £65, it's also a highly cost-effective alternative to traditional lab-based performance testing — with no compromise on quality or insight.
What Is Lactate Testing
Lactate testing for involves a graded exercise test on either a stationary bike or a treadmill where blood samples are taken at increasing intensities to measure lactate levels. Lactate is a by-product of anaerobic respiration and the levels in the blood are a good indicator of how hard the muscles are working at any given time.
A typical test lasts about an hour and involves a warm-up, an incrementally harder exercise period, and a post-test debrief with your results. Our protocol is based on completing this at your location and using your usual training equipment to ensure the results are transferable to your future training sessions.
Why Lactate Test
Lactate testing is the gold standard in terms of setting training zones to train effectively. Testing helps determine two key thresholds: the point where lactate begins to rise above resting levels (LT1) and the point where it increases rapidly (LT2), which is crucial for setting accurate training zones and maximizing performance.
Athletes typically set training zones using heart rate data and estimates of where their thresholds sit. Whilst this may work satisfactorily for some, there are vast differences person to person, and understanding your own unique profile at a single point in time is invaluable for training effectively.
What about amateur and recreational athletes?
Many amateur or recreational athletes often think, “Performance testing isn’t for someone like me.” But that couldn’t be further from the truth.
As a recreational athlete, your training time is limited and valuable — you’re balancing workouts with work, family, and everyday responsibilities. Unlike professionals who can dedicate 30+ hours a week to training, you need to make every session count.
That’s exactly what our testing is designed for. By tailoring your training to your individual physiology, we help you get the most out of the time you do have. Our coach will guide you through your results and show you how to apply them effectively to your training plan.
Isnt it best to do this testing in a lab setting?
While lab-based lactate testing can offer a controlled environment, it doesn't always reflect the conditions you actually train in. Doing lactate testing at home, on your own equipment, provides more relevant and realistic data — you're testing in the exact setup, position, and environment where you spend most of your training time and importantly, using the power meter/treadmill/hear rate monitor that your going to be using in your training. This makes the results far more applicable and actionable.
Whilst power meters, treadmills and HR meters are generally quite accurate from session to session, there are still often significant differences between individual sensors. Testing in a lab using a power meter or treadmill that might differ from yours by 10% will only set you up for future pain.
Additionally, testing at home allows for more comfort, flexibility, and the ability to repeat tests regularly without the time and cost of lab visits, helping you track progress and adjust your training more effectively over time. apply them effectively to your training plan.
