College setting for arduous benchmark tests

The students at the sports faculty of Munich Technical University were in for a surprise on Wednesday morning. The athletes working out on the college running track were no less than the FC Bayern stars. It was not an optical illusion either, as Jupp Heynckes supervised his men through a different kind of training session, designed to benchmark fitness and performance via a series of lactate tests, supervised by sports scientist Dr Peter Spitzenpfeil. The sweat flowed and pulses raced, but with the exception of the injured Claudio Pizarro, every player came through with flying colours. “I'm very impressed by the players’ running and sprinting," Heynckes commented.

The first group took to the track at just before 9 am for the tests to measure lactic acid values and heart rates. New signings Dante and Mitchell Weiser, and former FCB youth Emre Can, were joined by seven of the club’s youth players, who made up the numbers for training the previous day.