First Spiro Session Recovery

[Peter O'Brien]

Hey Guys,

Two days ago I did my first Spiro session, which was 3 x 10 mins.

Today I took an O2 SAT reading while lying down, which was 95??!! Could this be a peripheral fatigue between my lungs and my circulatory system, causing my body to not absorb sufficient amounts of O2? This measurement was so surprising to me because yesterday I went for an easy 2 hr ride, and felt terrific. It felt like I was keeping my breathing slow and deep, even at LBP -10.

It makes sense that my body will take a long time to recover from this first session, since it is not used to this level of respiratory stimulus, even if I did not feel fatigued.

Since beginning this post, I have pulled out my Spiro-Tiger to test if the number above made sense. After just a few breaths it was obvious that I was NOT recovered. It felt like I was breathing glass!

This was a great reminder to me that listening to your body is just as important as listening to the science behind it.

[Andrew]

95% resting Sat is not unusual, even in well-trained, well-rested athletes. It CAN be simply a "laziness" of the system, and NOT a reflection of fatigue or poor structures. In fact, the lower sats may signal that you are USING oxygen efficiently and simply breathing at a rate and volume to supply just enough oxygen to keep your body happy, without doing any "extra" work. This is similar to someone with a very low resting HR. Why bother ramping up oxygen delivery if the body is resting?

Next time you see a resting Sat of 95%, try taking two large slow breaths...you should see a 10-15 second delay in response, followed by an increase in saturations up to 98-99%.

So, the lesson from this is...do NOT use resting Sat to determine recovery from prior sessions. But by all means DO listen to your body when starting your next training session, and adjust accordingly. Hence the reason for a controlled step test before any specific training.