This happens when a University like UNSW when it offers medical courses. Students have to spend time on research and who’s the guinea pig? Yes you guessed it, the students from it’s own university, in other words, Mr James.

5 weeks ago I received an email from Michael Goldberg (a senior conducting the research). He was searching for candidates to be his research subject. He was doing a research on Hypertension Study which in the end leads to High Blood Pressure.

In the email, it says bla bla bla usual crap of eligibility and right at the bottom, information about my health, this was what I have been searching for, free information about my health. 2 month ago I was thinking to check my own fitness performance after watching one of Jamie Oliver’s movie, a month later, I literally get to do it for free! VO2Max testing costs about $100 – $200 USD if I’m not wrong.

This research tests runs for 4 weeks in total and I had to do basically 4 series of tests.

Required once before the research and once after the research

1. Peak Exercise Test( VO2Max ) - Which is the current one. Required once before the research and once after the research
2. Cardiovascular Assessment 1 – 24 to 48 hours after VO2Max testing
3. Weekly Cycling Exercise – 3 times of 30 minutes cycling exercise/week for 4 weeks
4. Cardiovascular Assessment 2 – Each cardiovascular Assessments runs for a whooping 3 hours

Peak Exercise Test (VO2Max)

In the morning, I walked in the door of the research room to meet Michael Goldberg, which is in charge of my test. Signed the usual document, take the usual data, height, weight, blood pressure and percentage of fat. Astoundingly, the percentage of fat I have in my body is only 10.x%.

After that, we proceed to the VO2Max testing, which involves me cycling the hell out of myself and calculates my maximum air intake.

Man it was tough, I did not stretch my legs, I didn’t do any preparation, I just changed my clothes, listened to some instructions, and off I went cycling. At the start, it was easy, just like normal mountain bike. After 4 minutes as the Watts get pumping into the electronic bike, I was riding bricks. At 6 minute I was breathing like a pig. Once it hit 7 minutes, my body started to shut down, I can not control my legs and I felt like dying.

I only did about 7 minutes and 10 seconds of testing. And guess what, I’m not as healthy as I expected to be. My peak was 37.57, average peak is about 41 whilst Maria Sharapova can do 70. It’s disappointing, I lost by miles to a girl.

The test ended like always with me overheating and cooling down beside the toilet bowl (I did not vomit).

Next tests: Weekly Cycling Exercise & Cardiovascular Assessment1 & 2