The Balke Treadmill Protocol

The Balke treadmill protocol is a fitness test that can be used to estimate cardiovascular condition and endurance by measuring the maximum oxygen uptake, which is known as V02max. The Balke treadmill test is a done at slow pace and thus is usually suitable for cardiac patients as well as healthy people.

Maximum Oxygen Uptake

VO2max is a measure of how well your circulatory and your respiratory system can supply oxygen and nutrients to your body during exercise. When you exercise, your heart works harder to deliver nutrients and oxygen, which are carried by the blood, to your muscles. Also, your breathing rate increases to raise your oxygen uptake in the lungs. The higher your VO2max is, the better your oxygen and nutrient delivery to your muscles is and the harder you can exercise.

How to Test

You can easily do the Balke test yourself. Only thing you need is a treadmill and timer. You can also use a heart rate monitor to track your heart rate during the test if you desire to do so. Start with a 10-minute warm up to get your muscles, cardiovascular and respiratory system ready for the test. You can warm up on your own pace doing an exercise you want, although the test is done using a treadmill.

The Balke Protocol

The protocol is slightly different for men and women. Use a constant speed of 3.3 mph if you are a man and 3.0 mph if you are a woman. Start the timer when you are ready to begin the test. Begin the test by setting the incline at 0 percent. Increase the incline 2 percent after 1 minute and 1 percent thereafter every minute if you are a man and 2.5 percent every 3 minutes if you are a woman. Continue doing this as long as you can. The idea is to keep up the pace and increase the incline until you are exhausted and cannot continue anymore. It is important you record your time since it is used for the VO2max calculations.

Analyzing VO2max

After the test, you can evaluate your maximum oxygen uptake with a formula. For men the calculation is 1.444 x time + 14.99, and for women the calculation is 1.38 x time + 5.22. Use whole minutes and fractions in the formula, for example, 15 minutes 15 seconds would be 15.25. Doing the test once does not really tell you much. You should repeat the test between few weeks or months while training in between tests. You should improve your VO2max as you train because your body will adjust to the training and improve your maximum oxygen uptake.