A good VO2 Max can be considered a sign of good general fitness and cardiovascular health for any age group, although what is considered a good VO2 Max decreases with age. 

As runners we often look to this particular metric during a training program to see how our routine is affecting, and hopefully, improving it.

How is VO2 Max measured?

There are three different ways that VO2 Max can be 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 significant.

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 and likely the least accurate 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.

What is a good VO2 Max for a 80 year old male?

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 one age group and gender will be different for another group.

The following table indicates the VO2 Max bands, taken from the VO2 Max Chart, for a 80 year old male, including what is considered a good VO2 Max.

Can I improve my VO2 Max with training?

The short answer is yes you can improve your VO2 Max with training, 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.