Max VO₂ – even the name sounds strangely scientific. You may have thought, "What is it and why should I care?" Here’s a short explanation of what Max VO₂ means and how to find out what yours is.

Oxygen uptake, or the cell’s use of oxygen, rises rapidly during the first few minutes of exercise. If you’re doing "steady-rate" exercise with minimal lactic acid accumulation, your oxygen uptake reaches a plateau after three or four minutes. If your workout gets progressively harder, your oxygen uptake rises in direct proportion to the severity of the exercise – for a while. At some point, the oxygen uptake plateaus with no further increase, even though the workload is still growing. This point is called the maximal oxygen uptake or Max VO₂. Additional exercise above Max VO₂ generally produces lactic acid, resulting in a deterioration of the performance (as anyone who’s gone out too fast in a 200 butterfly knows).

A number of factors affect Max VO₂ including the type of exercise, heredity, conditioning, body composition, gender and age:

Type of Exercise: There are variations in Max VO₂ for various forms of exercise depending on the quantity of muscle mass involved. The restriction of breathing during swimming also affects the amount of oxygen that can be utilized and the Max VO₂ for swimmers. Collegiate swimmers achieved Max VO₂’s that were 11% below their treadmill values although swimmers at the elite level can often equal or exceed their treadmill Max VO₂.

Heredity: The effects of your genes or-- who your parents are, are estimated at 25-40% for Max VO₂ and 50% for maximal heart rate. Genetic makeup plays such an important role in training that some say it’s impossible to predict how an athlete will respond without taking it into consideration.

Conditioning: Conditioning must be considered when measuring Max VO₂. With training, aerobic capacity increases, on average, 6-20%. However, improvements of up to 50% have been observed in some individuals.

Gender: Women generally have Max VO₂ values ranging from 15-20% lower than men. A number of explanations can be given for the differences. Women, on average, have more body fat, and men, because of their higher testosterone levels, have a 10-14% greater concentration of hemoglobin. Body composition (body fat and lean body mass) has such a large impact on Max VO₂ that individual scores are often expressed in terms of body size. Higher hemoglobin in the blood, allows for better oxygen-carrying capacity, giving the athlete an edge in aerobic capacity.

Age: Average figures for aging state that after age 25, Max VO₂ declines steadily at a rate of about 1% per year. However, recent research indicates that staying active can help offset this decline to a considerable extent.

Here is a formula for computing your own approximate Max VO₂, followed by an example using a 30-year-old female walking as fast as possible without breaking into a jog. Have fun!

Max VO₂ = 132.853 – (0.0769 x W) – (0.3877 x A) + (6.315 x G) – (3.2649 x T₁) – (0.1565 x HR_1-4)

The translation for our 30-year-old female (whose Max VO₂ turns out to be 42.3) is:

Max VO₂ = 132.853 – (0.0769 x 155.5) – (0.3877 x 30) + (6.315 x 0) – (3.2649 x 13.56) – (0.1565 x 145)

Max VO₂ = 42.3 ml . kg^-1 . min^-1

Source: Essentials of Exercise Physiology by William McArdle, Victor Katch and Frank Katch 1994. (Max VO₂ Formula: page 133)