The name is derived from V - volume, O2 - oxygen, max - maximum. VO2 max is expressed either as an absolute rate in litres of oxygen per minute or as a relative rate in millilitres of oxygen per kilogram of bodyweight per minute. The latter expression is often used to compare the performance of endurance sports athletes.
Full Answer
What does really determine your VO2 max?
Your VO2 max is made up of three main components:
- Lung capacity & heart volume. The greater your lung capacity, the more oxygenated blood your heart can pump, and the higher your VO2Max score.
- Capillary delivery. The more oxygenated blood that can reach your muscles, the higher your aerobic fitness score.
- Muscle efficiency. ...
What is the best way to increase VO2 max?
- High intensity running
- Moderate to high intensity swimming
- High intensity bicycling
- High intensity rollerblading
- Certain high intensity weight training
- High intensity cross country skiing
What is VO2 max and why does it matter?
What is VO2 Max and why does it matter? VO2 max is a measure of the maximum amount of oxygen that you use during intense physical activity. This measurement is the best indicator of aerobic endurance and cardiovascular fitness as it calculates how efficiently your cells use oxygen for energy.
What is VO2 max and why test it?
VO2 max stands for maximal oxygen consumption. This score is the maximum amount of oxygen a person can utilize during maximal effort exercise. This is the best test to determine cardiovascular fitness and endurance. The higher the score, or more oxygen a person can use during intense exercise, the more energy that can be produced.
What is the difference between VO2 and VO2 max?
VO2max applies strictly to the highest oxygen consumption value attainable for the whole body. VO2peak on the other hand is contextual. For example, during small muscle mass exercise (like on arm ergometer) your highest attainable VO2 value is much lower than your VO2max.
What does VO2 max tell you?
VO2 max measures how much oxygen (usually in milliliters) you breathe in while exercising as hard as you can. The more oxygen you inhale, the more energy your body can use. Higher VO2 max usually means better physical fitness.
What is a good V02 max for my age?
VO2 Max Chart for Men (ml/kg/min)Classification18-2566+Excellent>60>37Good52-6033-37Above average47-5129-32Average42-4626-283 more rows
Is it better to have a higher or lower VO2 max?
Understanding VO2 Max The first thing to understand is that a higher VO2 max is generally better than a lower VO2 max. A higher VO2 max means that your body is better at taking oxygen from the air and delivering it to your muscles.
What is an unhealthy VO2 max?
One rough threshold is that the highest mortality risks are seen in those with VO2 max below about 18 ml/kg/min. Once you get above 35 ml/kg/min or so, you're in a zone associated with longer survival.
How do I increase my VO2 max?
You can increase your Vo2 max in two ways: by increasing the amount of blood your heart can pump and by increasing how much oxygen your muscles can take up....Tips to improveExercise at a high intensity. ... Train in intervals. ... Combine interval and continuous training. ... Keep challenging yourself. ... Find Your 5K and 10K times.More items...•
Does losing weight increase VO2 max?
The researchers do further analysis to show that relative VO2max is actually inversely proportional to fat mass -- that is, the more body fat you have, the lower your relative VO2max. In fact, fat mass is a better predictor of relative VO2max than exercise performance (how far/fast you go in the VO2max test)!
What causes low VO2?
The oxygen carrying capacity of the hemoglobin in the red blood cells that carries oxygen could be reduced. The lungs might not be pumping hard enough to get the oxygen into the blood in the first place. The heart might not be pumping fast enough and hard enough to get the blood to the muscles.
What is the highest VO2 max ever recorded?
The highest VO2 max recorded in professional sports (and from a list of documented VO2max tests) is of cyclist Oskar Swendsen of Norway, who recorded a mind-blowing 97.5 in September 2012 during a test conducted in Lillehammer.
Is VO2 max heart or lungs?
VO2 max depends on oxygen delivery (atmospheric O2, air exchange in the lungs, pumping power of the heart, and arterial blood flow to the muscles) and also oxygen demand by the tissues (mitochondria consume nearly all of the oxygen utilized) [14].
Does VO2 max indicate heart health?
VO2max is a single predictor of cardiorespiratory fitness or exercise capacity estimates and has a protective effect on cardiovascular disease [2]. It has been shown by several epidemiological studies that high RHR and low VO2max play a role in increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease [[3], [4], [5], [6]].
Does VO2 max correlate with heart rate?
Conclusion: As the results indicated there was a strong association between heart rate and VO2max, indicating the fact that with the increase in heart rate during physical activity, aerobic capacity is reduced, and the heart rate could be used as a prediction measure to estimate VO2max.
Does VO2 max indicate heart health?
VO2max is a single predictor of cardiorespiratory fitness or exercise capacity estimates and has a protective effect on cardiovascular disease [2]. It has been shown by several epidemiological studies that high RHR and low VO2max play a role in increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease [[3], [4], [5], [6]].
Is VO2 max the best indicator of health?
VO2 max is a better predictor of overall health and not performance. While VO2max holds limited value as an estimator of performance, it does hold great value as a predictor of overall health and in determining work capacity standards for various occupations.
What is a good score for VO2 max?
What is a good max VO2? A good V02 max for a man between ages 30 and 39 is 41 to 44.9. For women of the same age, a good V02 max is between 31.5 to 35.6. You can improve your VO2 max with consistent cardiovascular training.
Why is knowing your VO2 max important?
VO2 max is important as it can be used as a representation of how much oxygen your body uses during exercise at a maximum effort. This formula can be used to determine functions of both your central factors (blood, lung, heart), and peripheral (skeletal muscles) factors.
Why Is VO2 Max Important?
Your VO2 max shows how well your heart and veins push blood to your muscles and the rest of your body. Knowing your VO2 max can help you measure fitness and heart health improvements over time. VO2 max is especially helpful for athletes like runners, swimmers, cross-country skiers, and rowers to guide their training.
What Should Your VO2 Max Be?
There's no single number that everyone should reach. VO2 max varies from person to person. Professional athletes usually have higher VO2 max values and goals than the general population.
Is VO2 max lower intensity?
However, you can do it every day since it’s easier on your body. VO2 max is helpful for figuring out your fitness level, but it doesn’t paint the whole picture.
What is VO2 Max?
VO2 Max (also maximal oxygen consumption, maximal oxygen uptake, peak oxygen uptake or maximal aerobic capacity) is the maximum rate of oxygen consumption measured during incremental exercise (exercise of increasing intensity).
When is VO2 max reached?
VO2 max is reached when oxygen consumption remains at a steady state despite an increase in workload.
What does max oxygen mean?
The name is derived from V - volume, O2 - oxygen, max - maximum. Maximal oxygen consumption reflects the overall cardiorespiratory fitness of an individual. It is an excellent way to assess an individual’s fitness level.
Why is VO2max important?
For both moderately active individuals and athletes, VO2max assessment is vital for training and performance.
Is VO2 max a good indicator of health?
The short answer is no. VO2 max is widely used as an indicator of health . In 2016, the American Heart Association published a scientific statement recommending that cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), quantifiable as VO2 max, be regularly assessed and utilized as a clinical vital sign. This statement was based on mounting evidence that lower fitness levels are associated with high risk of cardiovascular disease, all-cause mortality, and mortality rates stemming from various types of cancers. In addition to risk assessment, the AHA recommendation cited the value measuring fitness for validating exercise prescription, physical activity counseling, and improving both patient management and patient health.
Is the VO2 max test good?
It is an excellent way to assess an individual’s fitness level. While it is true that the VO2 Max test can help determine endurance capacity during prolonged exercise, there’s a common misconception that only trained runners, cyclists and endurance athletes can benefit from the test.
Is VO2 max defined by the Fick equation?
VO2 max is properly defined by the Fick equation:
What is VO2 max?
VO2 max is the number that describes your cardiorespiratory fitness. It’s a single number that captures your heart, lungs, circulatory system, and muscle stats all working independently and together. And not surprisingly, your VO2 max is connected to health, performance and longevity. At the same time, many people find VO2 max difficult ...
Why is VO2 higher?
A higher VO2 max means that your body is better at taking oxygen from the air and delivering it to your muscles. The more oxygen your muscles can get, the more nutrients you can aerobically transform into the molecular fuel (ATP) that your muscles use to contract and perform. This is important because your aerobic metabolic pathways are by far your ...
Where does the body store the most VO2?
Men tend to store fat around the trunk and abdomen, and women storing more fat around the hips and thighs. These natural differences in average body composition are important for understanding what your personal VO2 max means. Muscles use oxygen while fat is simply stored energy. On average, men have higher VO2 max values than women.
Do men have higher VO2 than women?
On average, men have higher VO2 max values than women. So for a man and woman with the same VO2 max, the woman will have a better fitness level compared to her peer group. A top female endurance athlete will almost certainly have a much higher VO2 max than the average male. However, she will likely have a lower VO2 max compared to ...
Is a VO2 max of 40 good?
For most people, however, a good VO2 max is understood in terms of so-called normal values. These are the ranges of VO2 max that researchers have identified in the general population. This is where things can get tricky. Similar VO2 max results can mean different things for different people. A VO2 max of 40 can be excellent for one person, good ...
Is higher better than lower?
Higher is better than lower, got it. But how high is high enough? If you are a competitive marathon runner, triathlete, cyclist, or cross-country skier, then the answer is really, really high. Top endurance athletes practically dedicate their lives to improving their VO2 max.
Is VO2 max good for health?
Weight management and fitness topics often go together and for good reason. Both are good health indicators and both benefit from healthy lifestyles. When you get your VO2 max from a smartwatch or fitness tracker, the number you see is what exercise scientists call your relative VO2 max.
What is VO2 max?
To begin, we must first understand what VO2 max is. VO2 max is the maximum amount of oxygen the body can utilize during exercise. It’s a combination of how much oxygen-rich blood your heart can pump and the heart’s efficiency in extracting and utilizing oxygen. By training the appropriate energy system to use more oxygen, ...
What Are Typical VO2 max Values?
When it comes to defining physiological norms, there are always exceptions. However, research has shown that VO2 max can be associated with general aerobic fitness.
What Affects VO2 max?
Age: After about the age of 30, VO2 max declines at a rate of 1-2% per year.
How Does Training VO2 max Help Me?
Training at VO2 intensity or the vVO2 (the speed at which you reach your max), can help a runner in ways including:
What Other Factors Contribute to Improvements in VO2max?
If two runners have the same VO2max value but one has a higher lactate threshold, the latter is more likely to win.
How does VO2 max affect running?
How efficiently the muscles extract oxygen from the blood and utilize it. Since oxygen is critical to running fast, a high VO2 max can be a great representation of your fitness. Essentially, the faster your body can process oxygen, the faster you, potentially, will be able to run. However, while the potential is there, ...
Why do you need VO2 max?
If your goal is to run a faster 5k, VO2 max training will serve to directly influence your speed and strength.. If your goal is to run a Marathon PB, you may want to include VO2 max workouts to support the heavy aerobic demanding work you do.
What does VO2 mean?
VO2 Max – What does it mean? When you hear someone talk about their VO2 Max number, what they are really talking about is the efficiency of their lungs and cardiovascular system (to get more oxygen into the muscle cells), and how efficiently their muscle cells can convert oxygen and glucose into a fuel (ATP, or adenosine-triphosphate) ...
Why is oxygen needed in exercise?
As you exercise harder, more oxygen is needed to produce the energy required to sustain the effort. The more efficient your lungs and cardiovascular system are (ie: the fitter you are), the more oxygen your body is able carry to your muscles and convert into energy. The V stands for volume, and O2, of course stands for oxygen. ...
Can an athlete process more oxygen?
Obviously, if an athlete can process more oxygen, they are going to be able to exercise harder for longer. Age, gender, and body mass have an effect on the number. But there is a threshold in which the lungs and body are not capable of further converting more oxygen, even when exercise load and intensity is increased.
Does exercise increase VO2?
If you’re just getting started out, then your numbers will likely increase dramatically with exercise. If you’re an exercise enthusiast but you’ve been slacking off lately and you run a cooper test, you’ll likely find your VO2 max will have dropped. Of course the numbers are all relative as well.
What does VO2 Max actually mean?
The picture at the top of the page is of my own wrist. So that figure of 61 is what my Garmin has estimated my current VO2 Max to be.
What is VO2 max?
So, VO2 Max is basically a measure of how much oxygen you can effectively use.
What units is VO2 Max measured in?
As oxygen is a gas, gasses are normally measured by volume - in Litres or millilitres. For VO2 Max the usual unit of measure is ml/kg/min that is:
How do you measure your VO2 Max?
The only way to truly get an actual measure of it is in an exercise laboratory. Where breath samples can be taken whilst you exercise hard on a treadmill.
How does my Garmin assess my VO2 Max?
Your Garmin is obviously not taking samples of your breath as you run. Instead it looks at your heart rate compared with your speed and effort.
What is a good Vo2 Max for my age?
According to Garmin/Firstbeat their 'best guess' of my VO2 Max would put me in the top 1% for my age (52 & three quarters at the time of typing this, in case you were curious).
What is the highest Vo2 Max ever recorded?
My research has thrown up some jaw dropping big numbers:
