What is VO₂ max?
Your VO₂ max is your secret to unlocking peak performance and physical health. It’s a unique measure of how fit you are and, when you know what your VO₂ max is, you can use it to make your workouts more efficient.
And, good news: you can get an estimate of your VO₂ max at Virgin Active Chiswick Riverside, as part of our brand new Technogym Checkup. But before you do, let’s find out what a VO₂ max is, why it matters and how you can improve it.
What is a VO₂ Max?
Your VO₂ max measures the amount of oxygen that your body uses when you’re exercising. The ‘V’ stands for ‘volume’ and the ‘O₂’ is for ‘oxygen’, so your VO₂ Max score is a measure of the maximum amount of oxygen that your body has available for you to use when you’re active – and how well your heart, lungs and muscles work together to supply it and use it.
Your VO₂ max is important because it tells you how physically fit you are.
When you’re working out, your muscles need oxygen to produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP) which is their main source of energy. The more oxygen you have, the more ATP your muscles can produce and so the more power and fuel you have during your workouts.
A higher VO₂ max is strongly linked to improved endurance, better energy levels, enhanced recovery, healthier ageing and reduced risk of cardiovascular disease.
How do you measure your VO₂ Max?
To measure your VO₂ max, you need specialised equipment which can calculate the movement of oxygen and carbon dioxide through the body. A direct VO₂ max test can be done in a lab where you’ll wear a mask while exercising to exhaustion on a bike or treadmill, to identify exactly how much oxygen your body is using.
Luckily, you don’t have to go that far to get a fairly accurate estimate.
Many modern smart watches provide an estimate of your VO₂ max while recording your workouts. But you’ll also find VO₂ max estimates included in a lot of health testing machines. Through a series of short exercises, these health machines measure data points like your heart rate and recovery heart rate to calculate your VO₂ max score.
You can use your results as insights into your health or take them to your Personal Trainer to find out how to optimise your workouts.
What can you do with your VO₂ Max results?
Your VO₂ max doesn’t only give you an understanding of where your current fitness is. It also helps you optimise your workouts for peak performance that’s personalised to your fitness.
You can use your VO₂ max to choose the right type of training for you. For example:
👉 Lower VO₂ max? Try more aerobic work + interval training
👉 VO₂ max not moving? Add hill running + more ‘comfortably hard’ threshold sessions
👉 Good VO₂ max but feel exhausted? Spend more time in recovery
By continuing to test your VO₂ max, you can also track improvements in your aerobic fitness over time to see if what you’re doing is benefiting your body and long-term health.
Switching up your workouts can help. Over time, doing the same workouts conditions your body in a particular movement pattern. Trying something new forces your body to adapt to new movements which can have a positive impact on your VO₂ max. Or work with a Personal Trainer to choose and set realistic goals which increase your VO₂ max score.
How do you improve your VO₂ max?
Since VO₂ max measures how your heart and lungs work to supply oxygen to your muscles, the way to increase it is to get your heart and lungs working more. You’ll want to increase the intensity of your aerobic exercise, to get your heart pumping. That could be:
✔️ faster runs
✔️ hill walking
✔️ intervals on the bike
✔️ HIIT sessions
The key thing is to up the tempo on what you’re already doing.
Link to longevity:
Research has consistently shown that people with higher VO₂ max levels tend to live longer, healthier lives. As one of the strongest indicators of cardiorespiratory fitness, VO₂ max is closely linked to a lower risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and premature mortality, making it a valuable measure of both current fitness and long-term health.
VO₂ max testing at Virgin Active
A test that estimates your VO₂ max is now available at Virgin Active Chiswick Riverside thanks to our new Technogym Checkup machines. These machines provide an estimated VO₂ max assessment through a simple squat test, without the need for maximal exercise testing or specialist laboratory equipment. During the assessment, the machine analyses how your body responds to movement and recovery to generate an estimate of your cardiovascular fitness. You can use the results with a Personal Trainer or alone to improve your long-term health and aerobic fitness.
Join a Technogym Checkup workshop in club or try it for yourself.
FAQs
What is a VO₂ max?
A VO₂ max measures the amount of oxygen that your body uses while you’re active as an indicator of your physical fitness, aerobic health and longevity. The higher your VO₂ max, the better your endurance, energy levels, recovery, ageing and the lower your risk of cardiovascular disease.
What is a good VO₂ max?
VO₂ max scores are unique to everyone and naturally vary by age and sex. A good VO₂ max is one that is above average for your age and continues to improve or remain strong over time. This is associated with better cardiovascular health, fitness and longevity. The Technogym Checkup result will give you an indicator of where you are with this.
Is VO₂ max important for health?
VO₂ max measures your aerobic fitness and the better your score, the better your long-term health. VO₂ max is a powerful marker of your longevity and working towards a higher score will give you long-term health benefits as well as immediate improvements in your physical fitness.
Does age affect VO₂ max?
Yes, your VO₂ max shifts over time so the definition of a healthy VO₂ max depends on how old you are as well as whether you’re male or female.
