Joshua Barnes

1 INTRODUCTION Maximum oxygen consumption ( V ̇ O 2 max ${\dot V_{{{\mathrm{O}}_2}{\mathrm{max}}}}$ ) is the gold standard measure of cardiorespiratory fitness; it is assessed by a cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET).

There’s a scream inside of me, borne from a frustration that none of this is enough: not enough men love me, not enough weight on the bar, my poetry isn’t published, I’m the concubine of capitalism, I’m bored with this mundanity, and despite all that I still wonder, while I’m cumming, when I’ll stop wondering what I look like when I’m cumming.

‘Everywhere, at any hour of the day, people can be seen quite shamelessly poring over checker-board diagrams, cudgelling their brains for a four-letter word meaning ‘molten rock’ or a six-letter word meaning ‘idler’…in private offices and counting-rooms, in factories and in homes, and even – although as yet rarely – with hymnals for camouflage, in church.’ 1924 editorial in The Tamworth Herald, published in the UK at the height of 1920s ‘crossword panic’ To a greater degree than any other...