Athletes and other long-distance participants are often obsessed with VO2 max. And it makes sense. VO2 max is a measure of how much energy the body can generate, and of course that energy is used as fuel to propel the body through all that mileage.

There is another area that is often overlooked, however, and that is fuel efficiency. Ultimately, most seasoned endurance athletes cannot bring up their VO2 max levels much higher. They are already generating about as much energy as they’ll be able to.

So, the biggest factor becomes how efficiently they are using all that energy that they’re generating. Most athletes waste a large part of their energy fighting their own internal resistance. It’s just like driving while pressing both the accelerator and the brake at the same time.

So, the biggest gains in performance often come from mastering neurological coordination, so that more of the body’s energy goes to forward propulsion and less to fighting against the body’s own brakes.

How do we do this? Well, we start by first finding where those inefficiencies are. With X-Trainer, we can identify very quickly and precisely where any deficits in coordination exist, and then we can reprogram them so that the body starts to work more efficiently, very quickly. Then after that “reboot,” we can continue to train the body to work more efficiently at higher and higher levels of challenge.