What Is VAM?
How to Improve Your VAM?
If you want to know how high your VAM max can be, look for a stage below 1km with an average gradient of over 15% to try it out. This method is actually more suitable for a more explosive driver who can quickly use maximum power and maintain it for a while. Challenge yourself with a good warm-up.
Find a road with good conditions and no sharp turns so you can focus more on the ride and keep going at a good pace. Steep climbs like this are best done standing up, with your weight forward over the handlebars, but not so far forward that the rear wheel loses grip. Keep the cadence as high as possible, because maintaining a uniform high cadence can keep the power as consistent as possible, otherwise it is easy to make the rear wheel slip, of course, it is difficult to maintain a too fast cadence, you need a good cadence and power find a balance.
Climbing mainly depends on the weight of the overall system, try to lighten the items you are carrying as much as possible. Some people may want to try to get better results on the second ride, the first as a warm-up and a pathfinder. You need to give your body 5-10 minutes to adjust and recover, try again after adjusting the tempo with an easy cadence and power.
How can I use VAM to improve my grades?
It is best to use it in a place you are familiar with and ride often, for a more intuitive comparison, and it is much more convenient if you often use Strava or other similar smart software and devices. If you don't have one, you can create one yourself. If you can't attribute the climbs in your Strava, then you'll have to use the above announcement or more advanced software to do the calculations. Record every ride and keep trying to break through.
Once you have this information, you can start trying to increase your VAM, it really comes down to improving your hill climbing ability, which is all about power and system weight, which is something else to study. The general purpose is to increase your power, lose weight, eat a healthy balanced diet, and allow you to recover well between workouts. Improving power is all about training. Simply put, ride more bikes, or if you want to advance your training, find a trainer to start training aerobic, anaerobic, and neuromuscular strength.