What Is a Ventilatory Threshold?

The ventilatory threshold is the work intensity at which your breathing really starts to change your breathing pattern. In general, if we are trying to get in one leter of oxygen a minute, it usually takes us about 25 leters of ventilat per minute. That's a pretty steady steady relationship at light exercise. But as you get higher in exercise intensity, that threshold kind of is passed. It might take 26, 27, 28 leaters per minute. And again, steve will talk a lot more about why this is important because that is the point where you start having to really, in a sense, think about your breathing.