Metabolic Fitness Testing Laboratory

For athletes and active people who are serious about achieving peak fitness and performance.

Exercise Physiologists use state-of-the-art equipment to assess your metabolic response to exercise to maximize your training and achieve peak performance.

We offer the following metabolic tests to assess your fitness and guide your training

Maximal Oxygen Consumption (VO2max)  This test provides an excellent measure of cardio-respiratory fitness.

The ability to use oxygen improves with aerobic training, so you can use VO2max to assess your starting fitness level and monitor increases in fitness as you train. In addition, this test can also provide an estimate of your Anaerobic Threshold (AT). The AT is an excellent guide for optimizing your training by identifying the level of exercise you can maintain comfortably for long periods of time. The AT is determined by measuring expired gases as you exercise. When you exercise below your AT your body uses fat as its primary fuel, whereas above the AT your body relies more on carbohydrates (sugars). Burning more carbohydrates leads to higher production of lactic acid, which in turn leads to an increase in respiration to counteract (“buffer) the acid build-up. The level of exercise at which the AT is reached is affected by a number of variables, including sex, genetics, and fitness, so it must be determined individually. We will estimate your AT and also measure important cardiovascular and metabolic variables that can be used to optimize your personal training.

You will receive graphs showing your physiological responses along with exercise recommendations from our physiologists.

How are these tests done?

To determine your VO2max and AT we will measure your expired gases using a mouthpiece attached to a metabolic cart. We measure changes in your breathing rate, oxygen consumption, and carbon dioxide production during your exercise test. Testing is tailored to your individual sport or sports: cycling and/or running on a treadmill. Cycling tests can be conducted using either a Computrainer® (pictured above) that allows you to use your own bike, or a laboratory bicycle ergometer. While making the metabolic measurements we also determine your work-rate and heart-rate so that you can apply this information to your own workouts. The bicycle and treadmill tests each take about 1 hour to complete.

We also offer measurements of body composition

Body Composition Assessment  Measure your body fat and muscle mass with the Bod Pod®,  the latest in body composition measurement.

Exercise and training tend to increase muscle mass and decrease fat, but the proportion of these tissues cannot be determined by body weight alone nor by the commonly used ratio of body weight to height, the so-called Body Mass Index (BMI). Using a device called the Bod Pod® (pictured below) we offer an objective measure of body composition that indicates the percentage of fat and lean tissue in your body. This measurement can be used to monitor changes in body fat and lean mass as your fitness training progresses. Elite athletes may also find this measurement useful for following changes in body composition while training for an event.

The test takes only about 10 minutes. Because accurate measurement of body composition cannot be made while wearing loose-fitting clothes, you will be asked to bring spandex shorts and top. Watch this video about the BOD POD process.

[Due to the current Covid-19 outbreak the Metabolic Fitness Testing Laboratory will be closed until further notice.]

We test athletes of all levels from the tri-state area, including beginners to marathoners, endurance cyclists and triathletes.   We are also testing athletes from Yale University Athletics, including football, men’s lacrosse, and the men’s and women’s hockey teams.  We are excited to have begun testing local Firefighters.

Exercise physiologists

Nina Stachenfeld, PhD
Director of the Laboratory for Metabolic Testing and Performance
Fellow, The John B. Pierce Laboratory
Senior Research Scientist in Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, and Yale School of Public Health, Yale School of Medicine

Dr. Stachenfeld earned her doctoral degree in Exercise Physiology from Columbia University in 1993. She has over 25 years of experience in performance testing and designing training programs for cyclists, runners, and triathletes using physiological measurements such as maximal oxygen consumption, anaerobic threshold, and body composition.

Her extensive experience includes work with athletes at the Nicholas Institute of Sports Medicine (NISMAT), Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City; well known for its leadership in the field of Sports Medicine and for the care of local professional teams, including the New York Jets, the NY Knicks, and the NY Rangers. At the Pierce Laboratory, Dr. Stachenfeld’s research focuses on reproductive hormone effects on cardiovascular, body fluids, and body temperature regulation at rest and during exercise.

Cheryl Leone, MS
Integrative Environmental Physiology, The John B. Pierce Laboratory

Cheryl Leone joined the John B. Pierce Laboratory as a research assistant in 1991. She earned her MS in Exercise Physiology from The University of Connecticut and a BS in Exercise Science from the Pennsylvania State University.  Ms. Leone currently works in the Laboratory of Dr. Nina Stachenfeld researching the effects of estrogen and progesterone on the fluid regulatory systems in humans.  She is a former gymnast and nationally ranked Olympic weightlifter.

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