If you have been stuck in an exercise rut lately — always doing the same workouts, not progressing in your training or maybe getting injured — the help you need just might be a trip to school.

The Central Oregon Community College Exercise Physiology Lab on the Bend campus offers physiological testing tools that can help almost anyone either jump-start or retool an exercise program.

This stuff is not just for elite athletes. In fact, says Johanna Olson, the lab’s coordinator, everyday exercisers and weekend warriors — and not just elite athletes — can benefit from finding out their current levels on performance measures with scientific-sounding names like “VO2 max,” “blood glucose,” and “body composition.”

“I actually think that the more standard type of athlete are the people that — they train too hard too often,” says Olson. “If you look at the elite athletes, they take a lot of rest days and they go easy on their rest days, and then they go really hard on their hard days. But they also have a personal coach that is there to help them, and a lot of the average people don’t have that opportunity.”

The testing at the COCC lab works like this: Individuals — and members of the public are always welcome — can set up an appointment at the lab and determine which types of testing they would like performed.

The most popular test, according to the lab’s website, is the “athletic performance profile,” which costs $169 dollars. The test measures VO2 max, lactate threshold and body composition, and it also includes an interpretation of the results.

Without getting into what all of those fancy terms mean, the outcome of the testing is that when Olson looks at the results, she can determine the proper heart-rate training zones individuals should use while working out, based on their current fitness level. Training properly in those zones helps exercisers know how hard or easy their efforts should be during any given workout.

“I think the main thing with the average athlete is a lot of people really are weekend-warrior type people, and so they do so much during the weekend and high intensity, and then they can’t maintain it throughout the week,” Olson says. “But I feel like if people came in here and did testing and got a better understanding of what recovery actually is and what’s best for your body, then I think maybe they would be a little smarter in their training.”

Besides, Olson says, the testing can be a lot of fun. Testing conducted in the athletic performance profile, for example, takes about 18 to 24 minutes on a treadmill or a stationary bicycle. The individual being tested wears a mask over his or her mouth and nose while data is being recorded on a nearby computer.

Every three minutes, the speed and incline on the treadmill or the wattage on the bike is increased from what begins as an easy pace and gradually increases to maximum effort. During that time, Olson and her interns monitor and assess values on measures such as heart rate, lactic acid, oxygen consumption and the test subject’s perceived level of exertion.

And though they take place on a treadmill or a bicycle, these tests are not just for runners and cyclists. A number of other kinds of sport-specific exercise can also be performed during the testing, including hiking, ski-pole walking, roller skiing, rowing and arm-cranking. Even wheelchair athletes can have testing done, thanks to the lab’s triple-wide treadmill.

Olson sees herself, she says, as a kind of “pseudo-coach” who “can help (people) get an understanding of what training is and why you do it.”

“I don’t think it’s all about competition,” she says of the testing.

In fact, community outreach is also part of the lab’s focus. At COCC, every student who takes a health course — Olson estimates at least 150 per term — comes to the lab to receive testing to help assess overall health, including blood pressure, resting heart rate, flexibility, muscular strength, body composition, and either a sub-maximal walk or run test or a six-minute cycling test that estimates their V02 max — the volume of oxygen one’s body can use while exercising at maximum capacity.

Olson and her interns also give guest lectures and workshops in the community on topics such as nutrition, stress management and exercise.

Current interns Casey O’Roark and John Williams accompanied Olson to a workshop last Thursday at Fleet Feet Sports in Bend, where the trio explained the lab’s testing options and procedures to a group of about 12 individuals and also offered free strength, flexibility and body composition evaluations.

Fran Weaver, 61, attended the workshop last week and is just the type of exerciser Olson encourages to come to the lab. Weaver, of Bend, says she took up running about 18 months ago after years of traveling for her job, poor diet and little to no exercise.

“I was never a runner, and I had been pretty much a couch potato for about the last 10 or 12 years,” Weaver says.

She signed up for a running program at Fleet Feet, completed her first five-kilometer race and has since gone on to run some longer distances — even the Pacific Crest Half Marathon in Sunriver this past June. She says she has lost 30 pounds since taking up running.

“I just feel better than I’ve probably ever felt in my life,” she says.

But she thinks she has room for improvement. She feels that she is unable to increase her endurance even though she is running harder.

“So now I keep thinking, ‘OK, what’s the next step?’ ” Weaver says. “I’m obviously not going to be a world-class athlete, especially at my age … but I want to maintain my health and… stay out in the community and meet people.”

A trainer at her gym had previously mentioned that using heart rate would be a beneficial training tool for her, so after learning about the workshop through Fleet Feet’s mailing list, Weaver went.

And after having listened to Olson, Weaver says she is “pretty sure” she will do the testing — perhaps next spring — to establish a baseline for use in training, as she is interested in possibly running another early-summer half marathon next year.

“I think if you know you have control of the physical part, you have a better opportunity to really control the mental part so that you can succeed on both fronts,” Weaver says of what she feels the testing will provide her.

That is what Olson wants.

“My goal,” she says, “would be to help (individuals) reach (their goals) without getting injured and with feeling good.”

Whatever those goals may be.

If you go

If you go

What: Exercise Physiology Lab

Where: Central Oregon Community College, Bend campus

Why: For physiological testing related to athletic performance that can be implemented in training

Cost: Ranges from $20 to $169 depending on the testing being conducted

Contact: Johanna Olson, lab coordinator, at 541-383-7768 or at jolson1@cocc.edu

What: Exercise Physiology Lab

Where: Central Oregon Community College, Bend campus

Why: For physiological testing related to athletic performance that can be implemented in training

Cost: Ranges from $20 to $169 depending on the testing being conducted

Contact: Johanna Olson, lab coordinator, at 541-383-7768 or at jolson1@cocc.edu