Exercise - VO2 max
What is it?
Vo2 max is a measure of the maximum amount of oxygen your body can utilize during exercise. It’s also called peak oxygen uptakeTrusted Source, maximal oxygen uptake, or maximal aerobic capacity. Tests that measure Vo2 max are considered the gold standard for measuring cardiovascular fitness.
Elite athletes in aerobic sports usually have high Vo2 maxes. Increasing your VO2 improves your potential to perform at a high level in your sport. However, it isn’t the only factor that determines success. Other factors, such as lactate threshold and muscular endurance also play an important role in maximizing performance.
Even if you’re not an athlete, improving your Vo2 max can potentially improve your overall health. Low levels of cardiovascular fitness correlate with an increased risk of heart disease. Increasing your overall levels of cardiovascular fitness is associated with benefits such as:
- increased lifespan
- better quality of life
- reduced stroke risk
- reduced risk of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer
- improved mood
- better sleep
How to measure
Vo2 max is most accurately measured in a lab. During a Vo2 max test, you wear a special face mask that measures the amount of air you breathe in and breathe out while you exercise. You work at progressively harder intervals until you reach your limit.
Typically, the test is performed while you ride a stationary bike or run on a treadmill. But several other variations may be used to replicate sport-specific conditions.
Going to a lab to measure your Vo2 max may not be practical if you’re not a high-performance athlete. You can get a close approximation of your Vo2 by looking at your race time for a certain distance. This calculator can approximate your Vo2 max from any distance run over 1.5 kilometers (0.93 miles).
Some fitness watches may provide a Vo2 max estimate based on your heart rate. The accuracy varies by company. The Finnish company Firstbeat conducted a study in 2014 looking at their technology and found that it’s about 95 percent accurate for calculating Vo2 max.
A 2021 whitepaper also demonstrated that the Apple Watch Series 3 and later can estimate a user’s VO2 max. It is thought to be as accurate and reliable as the traditional methods used to measure VO2 max, with only a small amount of error.
Tips to improve
How to increase it?
The best way to increase your Vo2 max is to exercise near your maximum heart rate.
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. The following tips may help you develop these two components.
1. Exercise at a high intensity
You can train your Vo2 max most efficiently by working at a high intensity. Many running coaches recommend training at around 90-95%Trusted Source of your maximum heart rate.
Working near your max heart rate helps strengthen the muscles in your heart and increaseTrusted Source the volume of blood it can pump with each beat.
You can approximate your maximum heart rate by subtractingTrusted Source your age from 220.
2. Train in intervals
A 2022 studyTrusted Source found that interval training produces better Vo2 max improvements than continuous aerobic exercise. Interval training consists of alternating short periods of high-intensity activity with periods of rest.
3. Combine interval and continuous training
Incorporating both continuous training and interval training in your workout program may be more effective than only performing one of the two.
Many of the studiesTrusted Source that have found the largest increase in Vo2 max have used a 10-week training program consisting of six workouts per week.
In the studies, participants performed intervals and continuous running on alternate days.
On interval days, they performed six 5-minute sessions on a stationary bike at a workload close to their Vo2 max separated by 2 minutes of recovery between each interval.
On continuous running days, participants ran as far as possible for 30 minutes per day the first week, 35 minutes the second week, and for at least 40 minutes during the remaining weeks.
It’s worth noting that this program is quite intense and is only suitable for people who are already fit. In the first study to use this program, participants continued to see increases in Vo2 max at the end of the study, but participants started to drop out because of the difficulty of the training.
4. Keep challenging yourself
When you first start trying to increase your Vo2 max, virtually any type of endurance training will likelyTrusted Source have a positive effect. As you get more well-trained, the gains will come slower and you’ll have to train at a higher level to continue improving.
You can make your training harder by increasing how often you work out, the duration of your workout, or how fast you move during the exercise.
5. Find Your 5K and 10K times
If you’re a runner, you may find it helpful to know how fast you can run 5 kilometers and 10 kilometers. The pace that you can run these two distances roughly correlates with the pace you need to run at to achieve 90 to 95 percent of your max heart rate.
6. Learn how to find your functional threshold power (FTP)
If you’re a cyclist, you may find it helpful to find your functional threshold power (FTP). Your FTP is defined as the highest amount of power you can sustain for 1 hourTrusted Source. You can use it to determine how hard you should be working when trying to improve your Vo2 max.
You can find your FTP by performing a test on a bike that has a power meter. After your warm-up, ride as hard as you can for 20 minutes. You can subtract 5 percent from this power score to find an estimate of your FTP.
Reference
https://www.healthline.com/health/exercise-fitness/how-to-improve-vo2-max