To understand what is a good VO2 max by age, you must first consider personal factors and context.
Gender has a significant impact on VO2 max, largely due to differences in body composition. Research suggests that men tend to have more lean muscle mass than women, whereas women have more fatty tissue.
Where fat deposits accumulate on the body for men and women also vary, with men more likely to store fat around the trunk and abdomen and women more likely to store fat around the hips and thighs.
Why does this affect VO2 max? Well, muscles use oxygen, whereas fat is simply stored energy. As a result, men tend to have higher VO2 max values than women because their body composition is typically one of greater muscle mass.
While top-performing female endurance athletes will likely have a much higher VO2 max compared to the average male, it’s still expected that they would have a lower VO2 max compared to top-performing male endurance athletes.
Likewise, age also impacts VO2 max scores. Typically, men and women both reach peak fitness potential at the same age of 20.
Following this, it then begins to decline between 5-20% per decade in healthy individuals as a result of increasing body mass or because our lean muscle mass decreases, affecting both our muscles and cardiorespiratory fitness.
Our hearts also don’t beat as fast as we age, so the force at which they push oxygenated blood to muscles decreases.
When it comes to assessing our VO2 max by age, there are guidelines. For instance, a healthy VO2 max score for a male aged 30-39 would be 31-41.9, while a score of 50 would be excellent for this age group.
However, it’s important to remember that personal context is still important. These values typically suggest a healthy range for men and women who aren’t elite or professional athletes.
How is VO2 max measured?
VO2 max may be presented as a single score, but it’s a measurement of the number of millilitres of oxygen you use per kilogram of body weight in 1 minute (ml/kg/min).
When it comes to measuring this, some fitness trackers and smartwatches aim to provide insights, but sadly, these numbers aren’t the most reliable [3]. If you really want to ensure accuracy, VO2 max should be measured in a laboratory, medicine facility, or medical lab by a doctor, cardiologist, or fitness specialist.
If you’ve ever seen an elite athlete hooked up to a treadmill wearing what looks to be some mask out of the future, they were likely measuring their VO2 max.
During testing, you’ll wear a ventilation mask and heart rate monitor that’s hooked up to a treadmill or another piece of exercise equipment (most often a stationary bike) [4].
The mask is connected to a machine measuring the volume of oxygen you inhale and the amount of air you exhale.
When the test begins, you’ll start by walking at a comfortable pace for several minutes. Then, the intensity or incline of the treadmill will increase, or in the case of an exercise bike, you’ll begin pedalling against greater resistance until you finally reach your maximum cardiovascular effort or plateau.
This is the point at which your oxygen consumption remains steady regardless of the increase in intensity as your body shifts from aerobic metabolism to anaerobic metabolism.
In other words, your body doesn’t have enough oxygen to continue to fuel the breakdown of carbohydrates and amino acids into energy for your muscles.
VO2 max testing typically takes 12-15 minutes to complete.
After calculating and analysing the data regarding your heart rate, oxygen consumption, and speed, you’ll then have an accurate VO2 max score which can help you determine your aerobic fitness or be used as part of a training plan to help you improve your score and track progress.
How to increase your VO2 max
No matter what your fitness goals are, you can improve your VO2 max by varying your training intensity. The most effective way to do this is to train at or near your body’s VO2 max level of intensity [5].
Most people of moderate fitness can sustain a VO2 max pace for roughly 6-8 minutes, which means that if you run at your maximum intensity level for 8 minutes, that’s your VO2 max running pace.
For instance, if you complete 2 kilometres in those 8 minutes, then your VO2 max training pace is 4 minutes/kilometre.
Consider these workouts that will see you target your VO2 max and can be implemented into your training program.
Interval workouts
By training at or near your VO2 max pace, you’ll be able to better target your body’s ability to process a greater volume of oxygen.
Interval training is a great way to do this, but the key is to do long intervals to ensure you’re using aerobic fitness. A great example workout is a 20-minute interval session incorporating 3 minutes at VO2 max pace, followed by 2 minutes of easy running. Repeat this 4 times.
Tempo runs
A tempo run is a workout typically done at 85% of your maximum VO2 pace. As your body adapts and fitness improves, you’ll find your muscles are better able to process oxygenated blood.
You can work out your tempo pace by multiplying your VO2 max pace by 85%. With that pace, maintain it over a 20- to 30-minute run, depending on your fitness.
High-intensity interval training
A great workout to test physical fitness and aerobic capacity is the 30/30 HIIT session, in which you run at maximum effort for 30 seconds and then do a low-intensity jog for 30 seconds. You can then repeat this 12-20 times.
Then, work to increase your time to 60/60, with 60 seconds of maximum pace and a 60-second jog recovery.
Hill training
Hills are a great way to boost your VO2 max as they place greater strain on your aerobic and cardiovascular systems. Run for 3 minutes uphill at or just below your VO2 max, then jog back down to your start point to recover. Repeat this 6-8 times.
Now that we know what VO2 max is and how to increase it, you're likely wondering what else you can do to achieve peak athletic performance.
Meet Compound, we're a digital clinic for performance health. Once the exclusive domain of billionaires and Hollywood stars, we're on a mission to make premium concierge care accessible to every man at any fitness level who wants more.
Equipped with leading diagnostic reporting that includes VO2 max testing, Compound's team of dedicated healthcare professionals and expert specialists is guaranteed to help you access the future of proactive healthcare and reach your health goals.
VO2 max testing is used as part of our diagnostics as it lets us survey the maximum rate at which a person can utilise oxygen which, as Dr. Peter Attia describes, is "perhaps the single most powerful marker for longevity."
Using this information, we can then create a personalised program for the individual to help them increase performance.
We take a multi-disciplinary approach to health optimisation and preventative care to help men unlock barriers to everyday performance. Our team of dedicated healthcare professionals and expert specialists are here to help you access the future of proactive healthcare, today.
To understand what is a good VO2 max by age, you must first consider personal factors and context.
Gender has a significant impact on VO2 max, largely due to differences in body composition. Research suggests that men tend to have more lean muscle mass than women, whereas women have more fatty tissue.
Where fat deposits accumulate on the body for men and women also vary, with men more likely to store fat around the trunk and abdomen and women more likely to store fat around the hips and thighs.
Why does this affect VO2 max? Well, muscles use oxygen, whereas fat is simply stored energy. As a result, men tend to have higher VO2 max values than women because their body composition is typically one of greater muscle mass.
While top-performing female endurance athletes will likely have a much higher VO2 max compared to the average male, it’s still expected that they would have a lower VO2 max compared to top-performing male endurance athletes.
Likewise, age also impacts VO2 max scores. Typically, men and women both reach peak fitness potential at the same age of 20.
Following this, it then begins to decline between 5-20% per decade in healthy individuals as a result of increasing body mass or because our lean muscle mass decreases, affecting both our muscles and cardiorespiratory fitness.
Our hearts also don’t beat as fast as we age, so the force at which they push oxygenated blood to muscles decreases.
When it comes to assessing our VO2 max by age, there are guidelines. For instance, a healthy VO2 max score for a male aged 30-39 would be 31-41.9, while a score of 50 would be excellent for this age group.
However, it’s important to remember that personal context is still important. These values typically suggest a healthy range for men and women who aren’t elite or professional athletes.
How is VO2 max measured?
VO2 max may be presented as a single score, but it’s a measurement of the number of millilitres of oxygen you use per kilogram of body weight in 1 minute (ml/kg/min).
When it comes to measuring this, some fitness trackers and smartwatches aim to provide insights, but sadly, these numbers aren’t the most reliable [3]. If you really want to ensure accuracy, VO2 max should be measured in a laboratory, medicine facility, or medical lab by a doctor, cardiologist, or fitness specialist.
If you’ve ever seen an elite athlete hooked up to a treadmill wearing what looks to be some mask out of the future, they were likely measuring their VO2 max.
During testing, you’ll wear a ventilation mask and heart rate monitor that’s hooked up to a treadmill or another piece of exercise equipment (most often a stationary bike) [4].
The mask is connected to a machine measuring the volume of oxygen you inhale and the amount of air you exhale.
When the test begins, you’ll start by walking at a comfortable pace for several minutes. Then, the intensity or incline of the treadmill will increase, or in the case of an exercise bike, you’ll begin pedalling against greater resistance until you finally reach your maximum cardiovascular effort or plateau.
This is the point at which your oxygen consumption remains steady regardless of the increase in intensity as your body shifts from aerobic metabolism to anaerobic metabolism.
In other words, your body doesn’t have enough oxygen to continue to fuel the breakdown of carbohydrates and amino acids into energy for your muscles.
VO2 max testing typically takes 12-15 minutes to complete.
After calculating and analysing the data regarding your heart rate, oxygen consumption, and speed, you’ll then have an accurate VO2 max score which can help you determine your aerobic fitness or be used as part of a training plan to help you improve your score and track progress.
How to increase your VO2 max
No matter what your fitness goals are, you can improve your VO2 max by varying your training intensity. The most effective way to do this is to train at or near your body’s VO2 max level of intensity [5].
Most people of moderate fitness can sustain a VO2 max pace for roughly 6-8 minutes, which means that if you run at your maximum intensity level for 8 minutes, that’s your VO2 max running pace.
For instance, if you complete 2 kilometres in those 8 minutes, then your VO2 max training pace is 4 minutes/kilometre.
Consider these workouts that will see you target your VO2 max and can be implemented into your training program.
Interval workouts
By training at or near your VO2 max pace, you’ll be able to better target your body’s ability to process a greater volume of oxygen.
Interval training is a great way to do this, but the key is to do long intervals to ensure you’re using aerobic fitness. A great example workout is a 20-minute interval session incorporating 3 minutes at VO2 max pace, followed by 2 minutes of easy running. Repeat this 4 times.
Tempo runs
A tempo run is a workout typically done at 85% of your maximum VO2 pace. As your body adapts and fitness improves, you’ll find your muscles are better able to process oxygenated blood.
You can work out your tempo pace by multiplying your VO2 max pace by 85%. With that pace, maintain it over a 20- to 30-minute run, depending on your fitness.
High-intensity interval training
A great workout to test physical fitness and aerobic capacity is the 30/30 HIIT session, in which you run at maximum effort for 30 seconds and then do a low-intensity jog for 30 seconds. You can then repeat this 12-20 times.
Then, work to increase your time to 60/60, with 60 seconds of maximum pace and a 60-second jog recovery.
Hill training
Hills are a great way to boost your VO2 max as they place greater strain on your aerobic and cardiovascular systems. Run for 3 minutes uphill at or just below your VO2 max, then jog back down to your start point to recover. Repeat this 6-8 times.
Now that we know what VO2 max is and how to increase it, you're likely wondering what else you can do to achieve peak athletic performance.
Meet Compound, we're a digital clinic for performance health. Once the exclusive domain of billionaires and Hollywood stars, we're on a mission to make premium concierge care accessible to every man at any fitness level who wants more.
Equipped with leading diagnostic reporting that includes VO2 max testing, Compound's team of dedicated healthcare professionals and expert specialists is guaranteed to help you access the future of proactive healthcare and reach your health goals.
VO2 max testing is used as part of our diagnostics as it lets us survey the maximum rate at which a person can utilise oxygen which, as Dr. Peter Attia describes, is "perhaps the single most powerful marker for longevity."
Using this information, we can then create a personalised program for the individual to help them increase performance.
We take a multi-disciplinary approach to health optimisation and preventative care to help men unlock barriers to everyday performance. Our team of dedicated healthcare professionals and expert specialists are here to help you access the future of proactive healthcare, today.
- https://med.virginia.edu/exercise-physiology-core-laboratory/fitness-assessment-for-community-members/vo2-max-testing/
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/vo2-max
- https://www.runnersworld.com/uk/training/a44036900/how-to-improve-vo2-max/
- https://simplifaster.com/articles/how-trainable-is-vo2-max/
- https://marathonhandbook.com/whats-a-good-vo2-max/
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