At some point you want to know exactly. Didn't reach your goal for the season again? Trained too much, too little or even wrong? This is when athletes want to know where they stand with their performance - and, above all, how they should train to improve it. Performance diagnostics are supposed to provide answers to these questions. Countless institutes offer them, most of them the classic lactate level test.
A little sweat on the ergometer, a few pricks in the ear, a glance at the diagrams on the screen - and the right training concept is ready? Unfortunately, it's not quite that simple. It becomes clear why once you have understood the development and a few basic elements of performance diagnostics - for example the term "lactate". In the ears of cyclists, lactate has a nasty ring to it; it means short, steep hills and aching legs. "Acidic" legs that are "full" of lactate are often used as an argument when strength is dwindling. It's all rubbish, says science - and has been for almost thirty years now. Lactate is good and useful, even vital.
SHORT & SHORT
The classic lactate step test is now controversial. The widely used method is only useful for initial orientation. Smaller training progress is invisible, however, and concrete approaches to training control are lacking. Methods that provide a more comprehensive picture of the body, such as respiratory gas analyses under stress, are more suitable. If these are combined with anaerobic tests and numerical methods (STAPS), important information about the origin of performance can be obtained and training can be controlled more precisely.
You can find the entire article on performance diagnostics as a PDF download below.
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