What Is VO2max?

The more you work out, the fitter you'll get. Your VO2max, sometimes described on wearables as a "cardio fitness" score, is a number that tends to be higher among people who are more cardiovascularly fit. But it's not the only measure of fitness, and you should know what it really means. What VO2max really is (as measured in a lab) Smartwatches and fitness trackers don't actually measure VO2max; they just estimate it. To actually find your VO2max, you'd need to go to an exercise lab and do a test on a treadmill or cycle while hooked up to equipment that measures your heart rate and the air you're exhaling. I did exactly this kind of test to compare my real VO2max to the numbers reported by nine different devices. You can read about my experience, and why it matters, here . VO2max, properly rendered VO 2 max , is the maximal volume (V) of oxygen (O 2 ) your body can use per minute during exercise, scaled to your body size because larger people will naturally use more oxygen. This is considered a good measure of aerobic fitness because-think back to high school biology-your body uses oxygen and food to create a usable form of chemical energy called ATP. You then use that ATP to power the movements of your muscles. The amount of oxygen directly correlates with the amount of energy produced. Or, in simpler terms, the more work you do, the more oxygen you need. So a person who is aerobically very fit-let’s say an elite marathon runner-can do more work (run faster) than somebody who isn’t. As a result, they’ll suck in a lot more oxygen per minute during their run than, say, I would. What is a "good" VO2max? A typical sorta-fit human being will have a VO2max somewhere in the 30s or 40s. If you exercise a lot, you can push that number higher. Elite cyclists, skiers, and ultrarunners may have numbers in the 70s or 80s , and a few people out there have scored in the 90s. I'd call myself a recreational athlete (I run a little) and my lab-tested VO2max was 43. Most of my fitness wearables reported numbers for me in the high 30's or low 40's-a good reminder that these estimates can be useful, but they aren't necessarily correct. Why is a high VO2max good? To be able to use a large amount of oxygen, you need more than just good lungs. You also need a strong heart and healthy circulatory system to get the oxygen to your muscles. And you need muscles that are large and can do a lot of work per minute-which means that you're strong and can do a lot of work athletically. VO2max is a way to summarize a lot of important things about cardio fitness into one simple number. The Daily Newsletter But it’s important to know that this number isn’t everything about fitness, or even aerobic fitness. First, it doesn’t make much sense...

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