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Spiroergometry in Berlin
Spiroergometry is a step test where you breathe through a mask so a gas analyzer can measure your oxygen uptake directly, giving a measured VO2max plus your ventilatory thresholds VT1 and VT2. What Complete arranges in Berlin today is a different test: a treadmill lactate diagnostic at PhysioEffekt, which measures your thresholds from blood lactate and heart rate.
What spiroergometry measures
You wear a mask connected to a gas analyzer while running or cycling at stages of rising effort. The mask measures how much oxygen you breathe in and how much carbon dioxide you breathe out, breath by breath. From that a lab reads your VO2max as a measured value rather than an estimate, plus your two ventilatory thresholds: VT1, roughly where breathing shifts from easy to purposeful, and VT2, roughly where it becomes labored. Those two points define your Zone 2, tempo, and threshold training zones. That is spiroergometry anywhere it is offered, and it is worth knowing before you compare it to the test you can actually request here.
What Complete actually arranges in Berlin
Complete does not arrange a mask-based gas-exchange test in Berlin today. What you get through Complete is a standardized treadmill diagnostic at PhysioEffekt with lactate sampling: small blood samples at each stage, measured lactate thresholds, and the heart-rate and pace zones that follow from them. A VO2max figure is on the report as well, but it is calculated from the maximum treadmill speed you reach, assuming average running economy, not measured from your breath, so a true gas-exchange test could differ by roughly ten percent. We would rather say that here than let the word spiroergometry imply a test we do not book.
Cost and appointment
Complete does not show a fixed price for the treadmill diagnostic. PhysioEffekt confirms the exact cost once your request arrives, because the protocol used affects the price. You send a request through Complete, choosing Tegel or Waidmannslust, and PhysioEffekt aims to offer an appointment within 14 days. Statutory insurers like TK, AOK, or Barmer generally do not cover sports diagnostics for training purposes, in der Regel only a medical prescription changes that. If you specifically want a mask-based spiroergometry, ask a Berlin sports-medicine practice that offers one.
Why your thresholds matter more than the VO2max number
For training, VO2max is the headline and your thresholds are the instructions. VO2max tells you roughly how big your engine is; it moves slowly, and no single session is planned off it. Your thresholds tell you what pace and heart rate to actually run at: the top of easy, and the effort you can hold for roughly 30 to 60 minutes. On a lactate diagnostic those thresholds are the measured part, which is why the treadmill test is the useful one even though the VO2max printed next to them is a calculated figure. Complete publishes the reviewed result to your Progress tab, and you decide with Review & Apply whether your plan is rebuilt around the new thresholds.
Frequently asked questions
What does spiroergometry cost in Berlin?
Complete shows no fixed price, and the test it arranges is the treadmill lactate diagnostic rather than spiroergometry. PhysioEffekt confirms the exact cost once your request arrives.
Is spiroergometry the same as a VO2max test?
Spiroergometry measures VO2max directly from your breathing gases, which is the most accurate method. The treadmill diagnostic Complete arranges in Berlin is a lactate test: it measures your thresholds and calculates VO2max from your treadmill speed.
What are VT1 and VT2?
Your two ventilatory thresholds, read from your breathing pattern in a spiroergometry. VT1 is roughly the top of easy effort, VT2 is roughly where effort becomes hard. A lactate test finds the equivalent two points in your blood lactate instead.
Treadmill or bike, does it matter?
Yes. Thresholds are sport-specific, so a cyclist tested on a bike gets more transferable numbers than one tested on a treadmill, and the reverse for runners. The PhysioEffekt protocol is a treadmill running diagnostic.
How long does the test take?
Typically 20 to 40 minutes including warm-up, the step protocol itself, and cool-down, though PhysioEffekt confirms the exact plan with you.
Do I need to be fasted?
PhysioEffekt confirms preparation instructions directly with you after your request, this page does not state a fixed rule.
Can I book a spiroergometry through Complete?
Not today. A request through Complete goes to PhysioEffekt for the treadmill lactate diagnostic, at Tegel or Waidmannslust. For a mask-based spiroergometry, contact a Berlin sports-medicine practice that offers one.