Speaking of Mrs. Hippie's Thesis: Has anyone ever taken the wingate?

[DirtyHippieUTE]

I have no idea what it is... I think it involves getting on an exercise bicycle and pedaling as hard as you can for 30 seconds while they drop some amount of resistence proportional to your weight. They measure how much you slow down.

It's supposed to test power. I've read my wife's thesis and have helped her do some stuff with it now that it's going to be published (yep... Mrs. Hippie a bona-fide published science type ologist). Unfortunately, I have no idea what it means. I was in the room when she defended and I think I understood about 3 words.

Every time she tries to explain it I get lost.

Have any of you ever taken it? Is it hard? Why did you take it?

[bluegoose]

I did take the Wingate once upon a time as an undergrad Guinea pig in the exercise science dept at BYU. It is a brutal test.

Its been a long time, about 10 years, but as i recall, they do incremental increases in the amount of resistance on the bike every 30 seconds while requiring you to maintain a certain intensity level. It starts fairly low, something like 100 watts, and increases about 50 watts at a time.

I don't even remember what it is they are measuring. I'd be interested in hearing more about her paper when it gets close to being published.