Testing the Body's Competitiveness

In a small, crowded room within Berry Sports Center, soccer player Chris Frisina '88 is proving how he spent his summer vacation. Three electrodes are taped to his chest. A small bag around his waist holds a device that radios his heart rate to a bank of diagnostic equipment. His head is encased in a plastic headdress which holds a mouthpiece like a snorkel. He breathes through a large rubber hose. Another piece of plastic pinches his nostrils shut. He is running seven miles an hour on a treadmill, sweat streaming from his body.

"You're in control," says Fitness Director Whit Mitchell to Frisina. "Step off if you get dizzy or nauseous." Mitchell, whose own tee shirt is completely dry, adds blithely, "It's just like walking down Main Street."

For 20 minutes, Frisina sends hardearned signals to the bank of equipment, which is called a "metabolic cart." The test helps determine whether summer workouts have given the rangy senior and his teammates a cardiovascular edge over the competition. The metabolic cart, packed with dials and light-emitting diodes, includes sensors that measure breathing rate and depth along with the concentration of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the exhaled breath. The results, instantly calculated by a microprocessor on the cart, determine "maximal oxygen uptake" in other words, how efficiently the body uses oxygen, the bottom line of fitness.

"The norm for college athletes is 55 to 65 milliliters of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute," says Mitchell. Frisina scores a 58, a respectable number but the lowest score on the Dartmouth soccer team. "He's come up from a 49 score last May," says soccer coach Bobby Clark, who had given his players a summer training schedule combining aerobic and anaerobic exercise. "Pretty much everyone did it," says Frisina. "Our goal is to be the fittest team in the country this year."

The equipment will help, says Ken Jones, associate director of athletics, who notes that few schools use it for their intercollegiate athletes. Still on order is an EKG machine, which will make the test safe enough for older members of the Dartmouth community such as faculty, administrators, and someday even alumni.

Frisina's sweaty trial is just one of a series of physical tests that Dartmouth athletes may now opt to take three times a year. They can be tested for flexibility of the hamstring and lower back. Percentage of body fat is calculated by skin calipers which measure milliliters of body fat at six different sites. Other sport-specific tests are administered, such as the vertical jump for the soccer and football teams.

The purpose is to help the students monitor their progress, Clark stresses. "I never use the tests as a threat. It's not necessary with these boys. They're so keen to be good athletes. The biggest problem is to demotivate a couple of them, and leave something for the coach to do."

Alex Simpson '89, a member ofDartmouth's rowing team, is one ofmany Dartmouth athletes from variousteams who had his fitness measured inSeptember, following a summer of aerobicand anaerobic workouts. Simpsonendured an uncomfortable plasticheadress, a plastic clothespin on his noseand a hard rubber tube between his teethwhile rowing at a rate of 30-38 strokesper minute for some ten minutes. Thebreathing appartus is connected to anearby metabolic cart which records hismaximum oxygen uptake, an importantindicator of fitness. Head crew coach PeteGardner, left, observes the test.