VO2 Max Chart

Simply put, VO2 Max is defined as the maximum amount of oxygen that can be consumed by the body while exercising. It is measured in millilitres per kilogram per minute (ml/kg/min). The higher your aerobic capacity, the more physically fit you are. Professional athletes would tend to have a higher VO2 Max than non professional athletes and so the scale goes down to more sedentary people.

Ultra runner Kilian Jornet has had his VO2 Max tested at 89.5 ml(kg/min). The highest recorded number was an 18 year old Norwegian cyclist Oskar Svendson with 97.5

However there are extreme examples. A good VO2 max differs with age and sex. What is considered excellent for a 25 year old male would be considered superior for his 55 year old counterpart. Likewise if that same 25 year old male had a fair VO2 Max, that would be considered excellent for a 25 year old female.

The VO2 Max chart indicates what a good VO2 Max is for different age brackets for both men and women. A good VO2 max in both charts is the third row down. As you can see, what is considered good decreases with age. Someone in this bracket will typically be a fit and active individual.

The VO2 Max chart has a column for various different age groups. If you are in the good, excellent or superior categories for your age group, then your VO2 Max is good for your age.

What is considered a good VO2 Max differs by sex and age. Male have a higher VO2 Max than females for a given age group. A normal VO2 Max range would be in the fair or good categories for your sex and age on the VO2 Max chart.

There is no single VO2 Max figure which can be quoted as what yours should be. Within your age range you should ideally be aiming for good, excellent or superior on the VO2 Max chart. This is achieved through a mixture of genetics, a healthy diet and lifestyle and regular aerobic activity.

You can improve your VO2 Max by training, but there is evidence to suggest it is limited by genetics as to how high it can go. Undertaking regular aerobic activity will allow you to increase your VO2 Max to its genetic ceiling. This can be as part of your running routine or via a cross training activity such as stationary bike workouts for runners.

There are three different ways that VO2 Max is measured.

Firstly, and the most accurate way is to undertake a laboratory test. This is measured using maximal exercise test on a treadmill or bike while connected to equipment capable of analyzing your expired air. It provides data on how much oxygen you use as you exercise, and determines the maximum level of oxygen that can be consumed during exercise, your VO2 Max. The drawbacks of this method are that you need access to the laboratory, although the testing costs, it is not a significant amount with labs advertising online. However if you want to get tested reasonably frequently to monitor your training progress, this could become a significant cost.

The second method for measuring VO2 Max is to use a running watch or Smart Watch. There is significant debate on the accuracy of the VO2 Max numbers these devices provide. However they do provide an estimate based on data used by their proprietary algorithms. 
The benefit of using a watch is that the figure is constantly monitored during your workouts. Assuming the watch uses the same information each time it calculates your VO2 Max, you will be able to monitor the improvements or otherwise by looking at the data. The actual VO2 Max figure may not necessarily be 100% accurate, but given all the data is measured in the same way, the trends should be reliable.

The third method of measuring your VO2 Max is to use a simple VO2 Max calculator. There are several published methods for calculating your VO2 Max, all of which are available to test on our VO2 Max calculator.

The largest benefit of this method is that no specialized equipment is required. Therefore it is available to anyone to test out.

The short answer is yes you can improve your VO2 Max with training. As you will read below I improved my VO2 Max by 18% over two years. However, the amount you can gain may be limited by genetics. 

A 2013 study (Orysiak et al., 2013) concluded that genetics can account for up to 50% of an individual’s VO2 Max. Once a person reaches their genetic VO2 Max,  oxygen uptake plateaus and their aerobic system switches to anaerobic power production, meaning without oxygen. A study of different research papers published in the CSF Journal concluded there were four genes that responded to training to improve VO2 Max. The response from these ranged from 2% improvement to a 7% improvement. Overall a study in 2010 (Keller et al., 2010) discovered that the average improvement in VO2 Max after 6 weeks of endurance training was 14%.

This is an amount that anyone that undertakes athletic endeavours should be pleased with. Indeed increasing your VO2 max to its genetic potential should be a goal of everyone if possible. Being as fit as your genetics will allow can only help to lower the risk of diseases such as diabetes, heart issues and some cancers.

To give an example if you are female aged 20-29 with a VO2 Max at the lower end of the good scale of 33.0 ml/kg/min. Assuming you are not at your genetic maximum you can expect to train it to get at the low end of excellent 37.62 ml/kg/min with a 14% increase, or whatever your genetics will allow.

Completely ignoring your VO2 Max will not be detrimental to your training in any way, especially for the average runner. If you follow a training plan designed to help you reach your goals, your overall VO2 Max will take care of itself. We have all felt the benefits of becoming fitter and stronger with exercise. Based on that and the fact it can only be trained to a certain genetic level, chasing higher VO2 Max numbers may actually be distracting you from what’s important, which is being as prepared as you can be for whatever you are training for. Much of running after all is a mental game. For pro athletes looking for marginal gains, hitting the measured upper limits of their VO2 Max will be critical.

Therefore for most of us, there is no harm in ignoring VO2 Max altogether. If you train consistently, it will improve over time and there is little benefit in chasing numbers you simply may not be able to reach. However, on the flip side, monitoring it to check for progress also does no harm, as long as you do not become obsessed over the actual number.