What is VO2 Max?

What makes some runners faster than others? What distinguishes elite runners from recreational runners? The answer might lie in the concept of VO2max. Watch this video to understand the concept of VO2max.

Some of the factors that determine your VO2max are:

1. Age
With advancing age there is a progressive decrease in contractility, efficiency and fatigue resistance of the heart as well as skeletal muscles. You also lose muscle mass as you age and this constrains your ability to produce force.

2. Gender
Women have lower VO2max values as compared to men because of higher body fat content, smaller muscle mass as well as lower capacity for power generation in the muscles.

3. Change in altitude
As you go higher in altitude, there is a decrease in barometric pressure and oxygen content in the air. This in turn, means you breathe in less oxygen and hence it causes the VO2max to drop.

4. Fitness and training
VO2max is unique to each individual and based on your genetic background. Average athletes may have a VO2max that is between 35 and 45. It is possible to increase your VO2max but not by much. Healthy people, who train with a structured training program to improve their endurance, can expect to improve their VO2max at any age. The increase in VO2max is approximately 10% – 15% from the base or initial value of a reasonably trained athlete. This percentage increase happens irrespective of how young or old you are when you start training.

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The gold standard for measuring VO2max is to have the athlete run on a treadmill starting at a comfortable pace and then increasing the pace in steps until the athlete can no longer carry one. Meanwhile, measurements are taken of heart rate and oxygen inhaled and carbon dioxide exhaled by using a face mask. This is a time consuming and expensive test that has to be done in a laboratory under supervision of trained test administrators.

The alternative is to do submaximal tests, ie, where the athlete does not have to push the heart rate to a maximum. There are many ways to measure VO2max and a few of them are:

1. Vo2max from resting and maximum heart rate.
Measure your resting heart rate (RHR) by checking your pulse on the wrist and calculate your maximum heart rate (MHR) using one of two formulas;

Max HR = 220 – age; assume 70

Max HR = 205.8 – (0.685 x age); assume 180

Your VO2max is estimated as = 15 x (MHR / RHR)

The above example would give the VO2max as, 15 x (180/70) = 38.5 ml/kg/min

2. Cooper 12-minute test
Warm up with a brisk walk for 10 mins. Now use a course that is a loop (you could use an athletic track 400m loop) or use a treadmill. Start your stopwatch and jog / run at your best effort level, such that on completing 12 minutes of running, you are completely exhausted and your heart rate is near maximum. Measure the distance covered.

VO2max = (22.35 x kilometers) – 11.29

If you covered a distance of 2km, then VO2max = 22.35 x 2.2 – 11.29 = 37.8ml/kg/min

Out of the above two tests, the Cooper test is a much more accurate one with a 10% variation. However, if the formula was modified to VO2max = (21.09 x kilometers) – 11.04, the error is less than 5%, as can be seen from a study done on athletes in 2015.

There are now wearable GPS watches that are configured to calculate VO2max using various empirical formulae.
VO2max is a good measure of your aerobic fitness levels and can help you define how you are placed vis-à-vis other runners or what kind of potential you possess as an endurance athlete. You can use it to measure your progress as you train over the years and to improve your performance.

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