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How VO2 Max Training Can Help You Reach Your Health & Fitness Goals This Year

Emma Loewe
Author:
January 05, 2024
Emma Loewe
mbg Sustainability + Health Director
By Emma Loewe
mbg Sustainability + Health Director
Emma Loewe is the Senior Sustainability Editor at mindbodygreen and the author of "Return to Nature: The New Science of How Natural Landscapes Restore Us."
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Image by BONNINSTUDIO x mbg creative / Stocksy
January 05, 2024
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"Strong" is our word for 2024. And building strength is about so much more than spending time at the weight rack (though that's important too!). Follow along with mindbodygreen this month as we explore how to cultivate strong nutrition, strong relationships, and a strong sense of self in the new year. 

Whether your New Year's goals include lifting heavier weights, setting a personal record on the bike, or running your first 5k, having a strong VO2max can help you get there.

Our bodies need a steady supply of oxygen to perform at their best, and VO2max is a measurement of how much oxygen you can utilize at a time. The biomarker shows how efficiently you take oxygen from the air into your lungs and pump it through the blood to your muscles.

Raising your VO2max can improve your athletic performance—but even more importantly, it can boost your cardiorespiratory health, decrease your risk of some diseases, and pay off for your longevity. Here's why you might want to spend more of the coming year feeling breathless in the name of this essential health metric.

Why is your VO2max important?

"Research from my lab and others has found a strong link between a moderate to high VO2max and a lower risk for several common diseases such as cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, dementia, and several forms of cancer. This is seen in both men and women, most often across all age spans," Elin Ekblom Bak, Ph.D., a physiology researcher and associate professor at the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, tells mindbodygreen.

In research published last summer, Ekblom Bak and her team monitored over 177,000 Swedish men over a nearly 10-year period and found that having a higher cardiorespiratory fitness (as measured by VO2max) was associated with a lower risk of death due to colon and lung cancer1. A separate study published in the International Journal of Cardiology2 found a connection between a high VO2max and lower risk of carotid atherosclerosis—a major predictor of heart disease.

In fact, longevity medicine specialist Peter Attia, M.D., recently told mindbodygreen that not many variables are more strongly correlated to mortality than VO2max. 

How do you measure VO2max?

VO2max is measured in milliliters of oxygen consumed in one minute per kilogram of body weight (mL/kg/min). The average VO2max for an adult male between ages 30 and 60 is around 39.2-44 mL/kg/min, while an adult female in the same age range typically falls around 35.6-40.5 mL/kg/min.

The most accurate way to measure your VO2max is in a lab setting, where you wear a mask that measures the amount of oxygen being "consumed" by the body, Ekblom Bak explains. However, she also developed a test that you can do to estimate yours at home. Some fitness trackers like the Oura Ring, Garmin, and WHOOP can also give you an approximate reading.

Once you crunch your numbers, know that there is no such thing as a "good" or "bad" VO2max. Like other biomarkers such as heart rate variability (HRV), VO2max depends on factors like age, sex, and genetics. So it's best to focus on improving upon your own baseline before you worry too much about comparing yourself to others.

"It has previously been recommended that men should have a VO2max above 35 ml/min/kg and women 32 ml/min/kg. However, more recent research has seen that there is no clear threshold, at least not in the lower end of the VO2max span," explains Ekblom Bak. "This means that every ml-increase in VO2max from lower and moderate levels (~below 35 to 40 ml/min/kg) may be associated with risk reduction and possible health benefits."

Training at a high threshold that gets your heart and lungs pumping will help make you more efficient at converting oxygen into energy, raising your VO2max. Typically, people who are less physically fit will be able to raise their VO2max quicker than those who have higher cardiorespiratory fitness to begin with. There's a limit to how much oxygen any body can take in at a time—Lance Armstrong was rumored to have a VO2max around 85 at the height of his career—so be gentle with yourself as you work on this metric, and don't expect huge jumps after one gym session.

How to improve yours this year

The most effective way to raise your VO2max is to train in zones 4 and 5. These are the zones that leave your lungs full and your heart racing. Unlike more sustainable zone 2 training, you should only be able to stay in them for four to five minutes at a time, maximum.

Research shows3 that the most effective exercises for building VO2max are high-intensity anaerobic movements that bring you to about 80% of your maximum heart rate or above. If you don't have a heart rate monitor, you can use a "talk test"; you should only be able to get a word or two out at a time at this level.

Attia recommends capping each high-intensity set at four minutes, then taking four minutes of recovery before repeating. Use these recovery minutes to actually recover and allow your heart rate to come back down. If you don't, you'll limit how hard you can push in the next rep and won't get as much benefit from the workout.

If you're looking to actively raise your VO2max, Ekblom Bak recommends doing these high-intensity circuits for 15-30 minutes per session, three to five days per week. The more intense the activity, the lower the total workload. "Also, the more muscles involved, the greater the aerobic challenge on the cardiovascular system," she adds. "Activities that involve the lower body, or more preferably both arms, legs, and trunks, are recommended."

Below, you'll find a few types of exercises you can use to reach these zones. However, as Martin Gibala, Ph.D., a professor and chair of the kinesiology department at McMaster University, tells mindbodygreen, "Many types of exercise can elicit increases in VO2max provided the amount and intensity is sufficient. There is evidence that for a given 'dose,' vigorous exercise can elicit greater improvements compared to moderate exercise, but the best advice is for people to do what they like and enjoy it and be consistent."

  • Sprinting 
  • Running uphill
  • Speed cycling
  • Fast laps in a pool
  • High-intensity interval training (HIIT) 
  • Plyometric and ballistic-style exercises like jumping and throwing

You shouldn't be doing high-intensity training every day, as it's tough on the body and can come with a higher risk of injury. For every day of zone 4/5 training, do at least one day of easier aerobic (endurance/cardio) exercise.

"A combination of aerobic and anaerobic exercise appears to be most effective at promoting longevity compared to either type alone," biologist Matt Kaeberlein, Ph.D., previously told mindbodygreen. "One recent study4 found that both moderate and vigorous aerobic exercise combined with two or more anaerobic muscle-strengthening exercise sessions per week was associated with the greatest reduction in mortality."

Set a strong base:

Train your VO2max this year by working more heart-pumping physical activity that you enjoy into your routine—whether it's running, swimming, or biking. Gibala notes that simply sprinkling small exercise "snacks"5—a minute of vigorous physical activity here and there, amounting to a few minutes a day—can also be enough to lower all-cause mortality6, so don't discount the power of a few jumping jacks or high knees between meetings.

The level up:

For those looking to take their VO2max training up a notch, try to structure your routine around Ekblom Bak's recommendation to do 15-30 minutes of high-intensity training three to five days per week. Be sure to balance it out with less vigorous zone 2 training, which is also essential for cardiovascular health (though its benefits for women may be a touch overstated). Happy training!

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