The Bleep Test by Darren Bausano

[Darren Bausano is a Senior at Northern Michigan University and is currently enrolled in the Athletic Lab Coach Apprenticseship Program]

The bleep test is one of the many tests we perform at Athletic Lab to assess fitness. Also known as the multi-stage shuttle run test (MSRT). The bleep test is performed to find an athletes maximum oxygen uptake, or V0_{2 max}. V0_{2 max} is more precisely measured by performing an all-out max effort test on a treadmill or stationary bike in a laboratory setting. This method can be very unpractical for many people considering the cost of equipment needed to perform this test. The bleep test is more practical for athletes in sports with change of direction in their sport due to the nature of the test, but can be used for any athlete to measure V0_{2 max} fairy accurately. There has even been a multi-level shuttle run test designed for on ice testing while skating. This test was found to be a valid and reliable comparison and more specific to ice hockey than having the test done on land (Leone et. al, 2007).

The bleep test contains a series of back and forth 20 meter runs as explained below:

• Cones are placed 20 meters apart on a flat runnable surface
• A speaker plays a series of bleeps that gradually decreases the time between bleeps
• The athlete must run back and forth between the cones between bleeps
• The athlete must make it to the cone 20 meters away before the subsequent bleep
• If the athlete makes it to the cone before the next bleep, they must wait for that bleep before they can turn around and run the next cone
• The bleeps continually get closer together from state to stage requiring the athlete to run faster between the cones
• Once the athlete is unable to get to the next cone before the bleep twice, the test is over and the total number of stages and bleeps completed is recorded by the person administering the test

The number of stages and bleeps completed is then run through an equation that estimates the athlete’s maximum oxygen uptake (V0_{2 max}).

VO_{2 max} is the maximum rate of oxygen that can be delivered from the heart to skeletal muscles and used by those muscles (Levine, 2008). The MSRT has been validated by many physiologists and has been noted as being the gold standard of physiological evaluation to determine fitness and the potential for high endurance levels (Sanchez-Otero et. al, 2014). VO_{2 max} is used as a determinant of endurance in many professional sports and is tested at many professional sport combines as a metric to be considered in draft placement. While these situations use an actual VO_{2 max} test, the MSRT can be used to gauge where an athlete is and help determine where a specific athlete needs more training.

References:

• Leone, M., Leger, L., Lariviere, G., Comtois, A. (2007). An on-ice aerobic maximal multistage shuttle skate test for elite adolescent hockey players. International Journal of Sports Medicine. 28(10), 823-828
• Levine, B. (2008). V0_{2 max}: What do we know, and what do we still need to know. The Journal of Physiology, 586(1), 25-34
• Sanchez-Otero, T., Iglesias-Soler, I., Boullosa, D., Tuimil, J. (2014). Verification criteria for the determination of V0_{2 max} in the field. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 28(12), 3544-3551.