This Test Shows Exactly When You Break

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-07

[00:00:01]What if you could train right on the edge? That fine line between peak performance and complete burnout.

[00:00:07]And over time actually push [music] that line higher.

[00:00:12]That is your lactic threshold.

[00:00:17]Today we're finding out exactly what that means, how to test for it, and what to do with it.

[00:00:23]We're inside Adidas HQ getting put through one of the most brutal, eye-opening tests we've ever done with Gomer from Watt Science.

[00:00:32]Normally a lactic threshold [music] test is done on a treadmill, increasing speed every interval, taking blood samples along the way until the runner basically taps out.

[00:00:42]But we're not doing that. Gomer built a new test.

[00:00:47]>> [music] >> One that looks a lot more like we actually train. Burpee broad jumps, wall balls, running.

[00:00:56]Each interval gets faster, harder, and the goal is simple.

[00:01:00]Find the exact moment your body floods with lactate and everything starts to fall apart.

[00:01:05]>> Yes, you hold it. You hold it.

[00:01:06]>> Because when you go past your threshold, your lungs feel like they're collapsing, your legs turn to concrete, and your brain is screaming at you to stop.

[00:01:14]>> I'm in it.

[00:01:16]But that's where we live.

[00:01:18]If we can find that limit, we can train just beneath it, build capacity, and raise that ceiling over time.

[00:01:25]>> [music] >> So today we're measuring our lactic levels through the entire workout to see exactly where we break.

[00:01:31]>> Come on, don't give up now.

[00:01:33]And then we're stacking our results against the best Hyrox athletes in the world.

[00:01:38]>> There's a lot in here.

[00:01:39]>> But before we get to them, who's going to break first?

[00:01:42]>> Five. Roll the footage.

[00:01:46]>> [music] [music] >> The hybrid test is a is a ramp test.

[00:01:59]Like you increase the reps and also the speed of uh burpee broad jumps every minute on the minute. Then we do wall balls and then we do 2 minutes of running. So it's always blocks of 5 minutes. 4 minutes going to be uh working, 1 minute of rest. Then we take your lactate and we take other parameters if you want.

[00:02:18]>> [music] >> So it's very easy in the beginning. It's like a warm-up. But then every interval we increase the reps and the speed as well until you cannot hold it anymore.

[00:02:26]It's going to take at least 30 to 40 minutes. And then you'll see how fit you are. Chris gave us this test. The test I'm doing today is We're going to test out what my lactate 1 and 2 thresholds are, which then I can take that and give it to someone like Chris to use that data in my training and set my pacing and what my numbers are going to be for this season. You guys have different goals. So if you're trying to get better at functional fitness or Hyrox, what his test is going to do is give you data points that now I can go back and know what it feels like to be able to do EMOMs at below lactate threshold or right at it. Okay, if I'm doing a long EMOM or something that is building my aerobic capacity, how many reps do I have to do of which movement that is for my capacity? It's It's very much replicating what what Heber is doing, but with a different type of test. And yeah, more specific to the to the sport.

[00:03:15]This is the new Hyrox shoe. I haven't seen it yet. So this is the first unveiling to my eyes. All right, here we go. All right, that's it. All right, this is it. I heard a lot about this.

[00:03:23]You guys have been talking this thing up.

[00:03:27]Wow. Yeah, stack height, dude.

[00:03:29]>> It looks like a bullet train to me, right?

[00:03:32]>> Yeah. Wow. That thing is sweet.

[00:03:35]>> It's sexy. Why don't you put it on, man?

[00:03:37]>> All right, this is a new podium product that we're testing. It's our energy gel.

[00:03:40]It's got 40 g of carbs in there.

[00:03:43]>> It's got 1:1 ratio of glucose and fructose. So it has two different types of carbohydrates.

[00:03:49]That tastes like melted candy to me.

[00:03:52]Ooh, that's good.

[00:03:54]Yeah. That's candy corns right there.

[00:03:55]That's what that is. With this device I can pinch him for a lactate measurement.

[00:04:00]And you're going to tell me the depth of the needle. Should I put it deep or should I put it just pinch you?

[00:04:06]Ah, just pinch you. Yeah, just pinch you.

[00:04:09]I don't I don't want Marcel piercing a vein. Look how long that is, dude. Are you piercing his ear?

[00:04:14]You're welcome, guys. No, no, we don't need that. I got Velcro over here.

[00:04:19]Yeah, this is not awkward at all. It's like, yeah, we I need to strap that thing in there. They're like, need an extender like a Southwest flight. Dude, yeah, dude, you need an extra Velcro. A seatbelt extender.

[00:04:28]>> [laughter] >> I'm laughing with you.

[00:04:31]>> That's why I used to wear a T-shirt in the pool when I was a kid.

[00:04:35]>> [music] >> Today we're going to be testing our lactic threshold in the hybrid [music] test. The test will increasingly get harder because they're going to be adding reps and hopefully you're going to be able to clear lactate as they do that.

[00:04:50]Only two.

[00:04:51]Marcel just screwed that up. Marcel can't count.

[00:04:54]Five wall balls. Starting off, it was basically a walk in the park.

[00:05:00]It was pretty simple. It was pretty easy. [music] It was like built-in rest.

[00:05:04]It's hard just to hold it at seven.

[00:05:07]So they're trying to get you to do two burpees every 30 seconds in that first [music] minute.

[00:05:12]>> Okay, guys. So now three and three. And then they'll add reps to that as you keep going. [music] Same with the wall ball.

[00:05:18]And then you're trying to hold a specific pace on the runner. Easy pace.

[00:05:22]I'm finding it more difficult to just kind of hold the bull's-eye at 8.1, 8.2. Yeah, I think I know.

[00:05:28]It's not like running on a flat ground.

[00:05:30]This is has a pretty big curvature.

[00:05:32]So it's not like your usual stride.

[00:05:37]>> [music] >> Right after they test your blood levels to then measure the lactate that you're building up over the course of the rounds. [music] >> One out of 10. One is laying in your bed, 10 is is friend in the end of friend, super super hard.

[00:05:51]>> Two. I'm below that guy. Three. Yeah, yeah. Four. Maybe it's just nerves. I was already having a heart rate spike.

[00:05:57]There's a a sense of nervousness of like you know you're going to go to a sucky place.

[00:06:04]Kind of like open workouts and stuff.

[00:06:07]Or any workout that you can get tested in. [music] And just the unknown, you know? Like I don't know what this is going to feel like.

[00:06:16]It's also under the scrutiny of scientists. It really feels like you're having a a school counselor watch over you as you're doing the the test. You know, it's like, oh, I don't want to mess this up for them. I'm very good.

[00:06:27]I'm at a five, four. Yeah. They're adding I think of two reps per round.

[00:06:31]It's not going to be drastically different. It's just like slowly getting worse [music] because you're adding more work in less time.

[00:06:38]>> I'm warm. Yeah, past the warm-up now.

[00:06:40]Feel good. Having to split it up every 30 seconds. So this [music] is not just one continuous effort. It's not like, hey, let's get the reps done and then have 45 seconds to rest. This is like, hey, you have to hit the mark in 30 seconds and then you [music] go again the other half in 30 seconds.

[00:06:54]A good way to understand if someone does functional fitness is at his threshold is when his T-shirt comes off. Yeah, yeah.

[00:07:01]He got allergic to cotton.

[00:07:03]>> than lactate and all the stuff we measure.

[00:07:06]>> [music] >> I always felt like the run was the hardest of the three and that was the thing that spiked my heart rate the most. Okay, running's not the hardest.

[00:07:15]It's good. So it's five, five.

[00:07:17]>> [music] >> For me, I knew where the test was going to be. It wasn't going to be the run and it wasn't going to be the burpees.

[00:07:25][music] Me personally, it was going to be the wall balls. I'm a taller glass of water, if you would say. And so for me it's like I should be better at wall balls, but I think I'm inefficient. I use a lot of extra energy in my wall balls, as they put it.

[00:07:39]>> [music] >> What was my lactate last round? Six to seven already. It's a combination of probably a little bit different aerobically trained than you and also just the test, right? Like if you start doing wall balls or burpee burpee broad jumps, there's a [music] lot more instantaneous power. So therefore usually what we see in these tests is [music] that lactate jumps up faster.

[00:08:01]But still the pattern is going to be interesting to know their different zones and specifically their lactate threshold, too. I think they're close to the end now, but they can maybe get one or two [music] more rounds in. Let's see.

[00:08:17]We've already crossed over and passed the threshold. If they are uh dropping for more than 15 seconds below their their speed, we have to stop them. Now we're living in my zone. Yeah, that's my zone.

[00:08:32]Nice, guys. Good work.

[00:08:38]>> [panting] >> Marcel is scientifically using the best way to recover, by the way. I know.

[00:08:46]Yeah, hands on knees. What's his lactate? That's Julie's. Julie's 16.4.

[00:08:50]Marcel's 16.4. That's decent lactate.

[00:08:53]This is also going to be uh 14.1. That's my guess.

[00:08:59]14?

[00:09:01]>> [panting] >> I'm in it.

[00:09:04]I think that we were kind of living at our max heart rate.

[00:09:09]I have a high tolerance, so I can live in the sock for the long time. They were impressed by our numbers but also our power output, but also how long we're able to sustain that tolerance that we have. It measures that dog in you, you know? How much courage and heart you got.

[00:09:24]Try not to stagger jump.

[00:09:29]Julie, we got the note from James Sprague got on the burpees.

[00:09:32]Staggering his feet on the jump. This is a Hyrox test. This is not a CrossFit or functional movement test. [music] What gets rewarded in this is how fast you could clear lactate, right?

[00:09:51]Yeah, 10 seconds left. Five.

[00:09:54]Three, two, one.

[00:10:00]21 21, 22.

[00:10:05]21, 22. Oh, that's so close. That's good. Excellent. That run was so hard at the end.

[00:10:10]I was I was max threshold.

[00:10:14]Oh god. There's no way I'd be able to hold that run. No. I was like, "Please, let me not make it."

[00:10:21]So, you got into the eight rounds.

[00:10:24]We were able to maintain and stay in [music] the test for about eight rounds, and that's kind of where we capped out.

[00:10:30]You got a You got an extra wall ball on me. You can't stop on the wall balls.

[00:10:33]There's not enough time. [music] You can't cycle them faster. 17.5 18.8 18.8 I just wanted more. 18.8 >> Mine is the courage. What was it the guy said last time? This is almost irresponsible. Yeah, it's like if you go to a doctor, he says like Yeah, this is irresponsible.

[00:10:48]I got that dog in me. You can't measure that.

[00:10:51]Heart.

[00:10:52]And one rep more. So, too bad for you that we weren't measuring [music] this test in total reps.

[00:10:57]This was measured for how we cleared our lactate.

[00:11:00]>> I don't know, man. I still think I took the dub on this. Because you were heavier, I think at least 10 kg, you will be generating way more power to do the same amount of reps, right? So, that's just how it is. There's also technique involved. So, if you have the same like equally wonderful technique, then you would generate more power. But maybe if you move more efficiently than him, then you could make up for it. I don't think that I don't think you can that much. If a HYROX athlete doesn't beat us, drop their contracts. You hear that, KP?

[00:11:27]Drop their contract. Give it to us.

[00:11:29]Shout out to the WHOOPs. We're going to go over our strain from our [music] lactate threshold testing.

[00:11:35]Uh it was a 12.1 strain, pretty high.

[00:11:37]But the nice little thing WHOOP let me know, it said, "This looks like it's a true training stimulus, not just checking the box. More time in those mid-high zones, plus a 12.1 strain, will nudge your [music] fitness if you give it some time for recovery." So, we we checked the boxes. We're moving our threshold up, you know what I mean?

[00:11:56]According to WHOOP. Shout out to the butter gang. I'm swiping down and I'm 97% recovered today. So, I went and found someone that was 97% recovered today, and that is Mika Rasmussen. Mika is a member since 2019, 1,725 recoveries, level 24. What are we going to send them? Slide into my DMs on Instagram. We're going to hook you up with [music] some Podium's new flavor, Solely Electrolytes, blackberry and fruit punch. Delicious.

[00:12:23]If you want to add more life to your years and track your fitness and health with WHOOP, [music] use the link down in the description below, and we will get you a free WHOOP band and a month subscription on the ButteryBros.

[00:12:37]That concludes WHOOP and the butter gang.

[00:12:43]All right, we put our best effort forward, but now we got the HYROX hybrid athletes doing it.

[00:12:49]Kind of want to compare what our scores are. See if we could get ourselves one of them contracts.

[00:12:59]The main takeaway is that we go way beyond our threshold way earlier than the elite athletes do, and we're able to like maintain that.

[00:13:11]>> [music] >> Me and Marston need lactate summer school. Some of these guys weren't even to their threshold by the time we finished this workout. The elites ended up going to like 10, 11 rounds. We We got about eight.

[00:13:34]>> [screaming] [applause and cheering] >> So, the pros, like Tim, he almost finished round 11. They were all running at 18 km an hour.

[00:13:51]Tim was stepping out at almost 20. So, Did Tim end up being the best? He was the best, but not by a large margin. It was all very close. His lactate, there you beat him.

[00:14:02]He was like, I think 12. 12? So, he can Yeah, clear the lactate way better than you. So, that's a part of his physiology. He was chilling at lactate [music] three when you were failing the test.

[00:14:14]Wow.

[00:14:14]>> So, he has a massive aerobic capacity.

[00:14:16]He can like he doesn't um produce that much lactate, but also clears it way better than than you guys at very high intensity. So, you learned We got work to do. We got work to do. We got work to do. We got room to grow. So, today it was fun because the stations for Vermer to recover, and the run was pretty hard, especially on the coach runner. So, it's no joke. Um but it was pretty good.

[00:14:40]I'm happy.

[00:14:42]I had all of us both lactate, so it was a good effort.

[00:14:47]It's just a huge treadmill. This is pretty new to the lab, so we've done only a couple of test sessions with it.

[00:14:52]Don't push to your absolute max that you struggle and fall down so Otherwise, it will send you flying.

[00:14:58]Okay, what we're going to do is we're going to start this at 16 km an hour with two of us on it, and every 10 seconds he's just going to hit the speed button to get it going faster and faster and faster.

[00:15:08]>> Is this what you call death by treadmill? Death by treadmill. Death by treadmill. DBT The goal is to not go out the back, okay?

[00:15:16]>> is to not die.

[00:15:18]Shout out Brian Johnson. Go to 16.

[00:15:25]Who's going to tap? WHO'S GOING TO QUIT?

[00:15:28]YEAH, who's going to quit?

[00:15:33]Who's going to quit?

[00:15:36]>> [music] >> I was almost the I quit.

[00:15:48]So, you stopped it for him? Yeah.

[00:15:51]Oh. It was 21. All right, I was really hoping someone was just going to hit Yes, no one tried to actually tap it, you know, jump on.

[00:15:58]I mean, I was going to tap any second.

[00:16:00]Looked Looked pretty shaky. We don't have a winner for that. Yeah, yeah. I I got star student, I guess.

[00:16:06]>> Let's see the draw.

[00:16:08]Okay, the data is in from our test.

[00:16:10]We've got Julian and my data, and we have the scientist here to break it down. Here we're looking at the power output that you guys had, right? Already from the ideal power, Julian has more than you.

[00:16:22]Oh, yeah. Because he's moving more Exactly. He's moving more fast, let's say. I'm I'm a little more plus-sized. I got a little more love on me. He produces even more power [music] because he's not moving as efficiently.

[00:16:34]So, I have a lot of potential, is what you're saying?

[00:16:36]>> You're doing a lot more work [music] than you have to.

[00:16:38]>> Okay. With So, my average power output is 256 W. What's yours? 193.

[00:16:46]>> [laughter] >> Your boy got more power. Every bar is a different round. So, he has a much higher bar than this this time. Okay.

[00:16:54]Would you recommend I learn how to move more efficiently on some of the movements, or would it be just lose weight? The biggest gap is because of your um your inefficiency. So, I would say movement efficiency, and then we can look maybe later at which movement you are specifically inefficient at. Is it Spoilers. Running and burpee broad jumps. The wall balls were quite nice for both of you. Oh. The The colors you see, green, yellow, and red, um that is more physiological, your your metabolic um yeah, efficiency, so to speak. So, here the green, that would be your interval at zone two, your aerobic base.

[00:17:28]And the difference with with real elite athletes, the first six intervals are green. So, to clarify, they were in zone two until round six. Yes.

[00:17:35]The elite. Those guys were in zone two until round six. And also the girls.

[00:17:39]Very impressive. So, they were chilling at lactate two, three millimolars, and where you were at 17. That you guys could work more on zone two. But it's not that easy because we cannot give you functional movements in zone two. It would be immediately be too high with high intensity workouts are way above all the thresholds, and that's why you built that red zone really well, the tolerance to lactate, both really well, because that's mostly how you train. We got heart. That's We have a lot of heart.

[00:18:05]>> That's how it works. But if you want to improve that base, specifically for example for HYROX training, you need to go long and lower intensity. So, final number, my lat max lactate was a 17.7.

[00:18:19]But you My max lactate was 18.8, baby.

[00:18:26]No one in this room had higher lactate.

[00:18:27]Bro, I got I got that dog in me. I wasn't stopping, so he stopped. I was only second last year.

[00:18:33]>> were falling off. Congratulations.

[00:18:35]If you want to get to the next level and you want to unlock your full potential, I do think even for those 8 to 12 minute workouts, you need to increase your aerobic base. And that is not really done by always doing high intensity metcons. And you will hit a wall after two, three, four years of doing CrossFit if you always doing this high intensity stuff and basically never do anything low intensity. So, like if you if you want to do threshold training, this would be equivalent to your threshold power. Nine per minute.

[00:19:02]>> to target nine per minute, that would be not your zone two. This will already be your threshold, so your maximum sustainable intensity for 40 minutes.

[00:19:10]So, that's not that many, right? Like nine burpees per minute. It's okay. It's really cool kind of analysis [music] of how your body adapts and or takes on lactate and how you can kind of train those systems. [music] >> If you had to pick a star student, and you had to get one of us on your team, who do you think you're taking, ME OR MARSTON?

[00:19:29]>> [screaming] >> HE'S THE STAR STUDENT. I THOUGHT I WAS MORE EFFICIENT. I'M GRADUATING. Explain that.

[00:19:36]I have more potential.

[00:19:37]I'm I'm sure he has a higher VO2 max as well. Because I can I can work with you.

[00:19:39]I can I can like Yeah, manipulate you more. I'm from biomechanics.

[00:19:41]>> Because I can I can work with you. I can I can like Yeah, manipulate you more. You know what? I'm I'm from biomechanics. I'm not from physiology. So, I appreciate movement efficiency, so I go with you.

[00:19:55]Everybody's winning. Hey, I'll get programs, you get programs, you see who comes out on top. I think for some couple average Joes, some content [music] fit content creators, it's something like we did good.

[00:20:07]>> [music]