POD, Patrick O'Donnell

Everyone breathes the same air, at roughly the same pace. Provided you have healthy lungs you probably inhale just as much oxygen as the person next to you. And oxygen is the most important factor to facilitate enough energy for the body. So why is it that some people are fitter than others? Since the outside factors are roughly the same for everyone, how come some people have a much higher work capacity than others? In the  VO 2 max  series I'm going to explain those differences in physiology between people and by which rules you can improve them. In the fitness world it is a often talked about value. But what does the  VO 2 max  consist of? This is where Dr. Fick comes into play (amongst other important discoveries his surname also means "to fuck" in German). The Fick equation.  Now let's break this intimidating formula down. Q stands for cardiac output. This is the volume of blood that the heart pumps out every minute. Easy. Now the part of the formula i

A look in to Intrinsic vs Explicit motives. Deconstructing motivation and where it comes from. In this post I'm going to deconstruct a theory about motives and what drive presides the desire to achieve a goal. Let's start by defining the first two types of motives. Explicit motives: Motives that are driven by outward goals, for instance the drive to impress others, getting a new car, etc. Implicit motives: Motives that are driven by the inherent joy of a task,  for instance drawing, just because you like doing it. Now when looking at your own motives behind your goals you'll probably notice that they both contain an explicit and an implicit component. Is one inherently worse than the other? Like with a lot of things, it depends. In a study done by Poortvliet & Darnon (2010), it was found that for people who are less competent (less skilled, familiar etc.)  it is best to be pared up with people who are intrinsically motivated to do a task. However, when people are highl