{"id":932185,"date":"2026-10-18T03:48:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T03:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/932185\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T03:48:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T03:48:24","slug":"vo2-max-by-age-the-lowdown-on-this-important-performance-metric","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/932185\/","title":{"rendered":"VO2 max by age: the lowdown on this important performance metric"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most runners, at some point, want to see how fast<\/a> and hard they can go, even for just a few minutes. Running at that nearly all-out intensity, when you\u2019re breathing heavy and can barely talk, is likely your VO2 max (or close to it). Scientifically speaking, VO2 max<\/a> is the maximum amount of oxygen your body can take in and use and it\u2019s a marker of your cardiovascular fitness<\/a> level. <\/p>\n

For a variety of reasons, VO2 max naturally decreases as you get older. Fortunately, athletes are more likely to minimise this decline through consistent and purposeful training.<\/p>\n

Read on for more information about VO2 max by age, including how it\u2019s determined and how to make sure that your runs help to maintain this important metric as you get older.<\/p>\n

Why does VO2 max matter?<\/p>\n

Of all the available health and fitness metrics, VO2 max is one of the most important. \u201cVO2 max is the amount of oxygen that you can breathe in, transport to the muscle and use during maximal exertion and aerobic exercise,\u201d says Todd Buckingham<\/a>, Ph.D., exercise physiologist and visiting professor at Grand Valley State University in Michigan.<\/p>\n

He explains that, besides being an indicator of overall fitness, it\u2019s also a \u201cgold standard\u201d measurement of an athlete\u2019s ability to perform well in an endurance event; essentially, the higher your VO2 max, the greater your potential. \u201cOnce your VO2 max gets to a certain level, other things like lactate threshold<\/a> and exercise efficiency come into play. But VO2 max is the first step in determining performance,\u201d Buckingham says.<\/p>\n

VO2 max, which is measured as millilitres of oxygen per kilogram of bodyweight per minute (ml\/kg\/min), is most accurately assessed in a laboratory environment. During the test, you wear a specialised mask that measures inhaled oxygen and exhaled carbon dioxide while you pedal an exercise bike, run on a treadmill, or swim in an endless pool. Over the course of 12 to 15 minutes, you increase the exercise intensity so that, by the end of the test, you pushed your aerobic limits.<\/p>\n

Getting access to a lab can obviously be time consuming and expensive, so you can also turn to your fitness tracker to help establish a baseline and keep tabs on how your fitness is improving. The caveat: You have to take those numbers with a grain of salt. Research<\/a> shows that many wearables over- or underestimate VO2 max by up to 10%.<\/p>\n

Why does VO2 max decline as you age?<\/p>\n

Like many markers of health and fitness, VO2 max naturally declines as you age. \u201cVO2 max tends to peak for men in their mid-to-late 20s. For women, it\u2019s a little later, like early 30s. But after it reaches the peak, it tends to decrease,\u201d Buckingham says.<\/p>\n

Some research<\/a> indicates that the average person can expect around a 10% decline in VO2 max after age of 30. (This is particularly true for males, the study suggests.) However, the drop may be even more drastic among athletes. According to a study<\/a> published in a 2024 issue of Experimental Gerontology, aging had a greater affect on VO2 max in female runners than in sedentary women. The scientists hypothesised that the younger athletes started with a higher VO2 max than their sedentary peers and, therefore, had further to fall. Despite this more drastic decline, active women still had better VO2 max than their non-active peers.<\/p>\n

Generally speaking, though, age-related reductions in VO2 max are likely due to a combination of factors, including a reduction in cardiac output. Cardiac output<\/a> is the product of the number of times your heart beats per minute (heart rate) and the volume of blood ejected with each contraction of the heart (stroke volume). As you age, both the amount of blood your heart pumps out to the body and your maximal heart rate<\/a> go down. Older individuals may also experience a reduction in blood circulation.<\/p>\n

Age-related muscle loss, a.k.a. sarcopenia, may also be to blame for a decline in VO2 max. \u201cWe tend to lose muscle mass and increase body fat percentage [as we get older],\u201d Buckingham says. \u201cBecause fat does not have mitochondria and capillaries to turn oxygen into energy, we have metabolically inactive tissue.\u201d (Mitochondria are the parts of cells that use oxygen to manufacture adenosine triphosphate (ATP), our primary energy currency.)<\/p>\n

In other words, with lower muscle mass comes the loss of capillaries and mitochondria, making your body less energy efficient.
<\/p>\n

VO2 max by age chart<\/p>\n

Wondering what\u2019s a typical rate of decline for VO2 max? The chart below contains research-based averages of VO2 max by age and fitness level, for men and women. Remember that each individual\u2019s VO2 max score depends on multiple biological and lifestyle factors; these are just a range of average scores.<\/p>\n

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How do you fight VO2 max decline as you age?<\/p>\n

While everyone gets older, not everyone loses VO2 max at the same rate. \u201cThere\u2019s the saying, \u2018We don\u2019t stop exercising because we get old. We get old because we stop exercising,\u2019\u201d Buckingham says. \u201cJust by being active, you can prolong that level of VO2 max. Obviously, at some point, the atrophy process is going to occur. It just happens as we get older. But you can maintain it for a lot longer when you\u2019re active than if you were just sedentary.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re already following a training program that includes a mix of easy, steady-state runs, more intense workouts and strength training<\/a>, stick with that diversified approach.<\/p>\n

Lower intensity \u2013 or zone 2<\/a> \u2013 workouts are especially important. \u201cWhen you are exercising at lower intensities, you produce more mitochondria and capillaries. Mitochondria is where the oxygen is transformed into energy and the capillaries are the vessels that actually take the oxygen from the blood to get it into the muscle to then get it into the mitochondria to produce energy,\u201d Buckingham explains.<\/p>\n

Higher-intensity exercise<\/a> is also essential, as it increases the size of each mitochondrion (\u201cso we can get more oxygen into it,\u201d Buckingham says). Just remember: High-intensity exercise, Buckingham explains, necessitates a longer recovery period.<\/p>\n

To maximise the benefits of your workouts while avoiding burnout, Buckingham recommends the 80\/20 training methodology: 80% of your workouts are low-intensity and 20% are performed at higher intensities.
<\/p>\n

Strength training<\/a> is also critical, as it can combat sarcopenia and maintain muscle mass. As previously noted, muscle mass is critical to VO2 max, as it contains mitochondria and capillaries.<\/p>\n

A pretty valid case for making these workouts a part of your regular routine: Research suggests that higher VO2 max levels may be associated with a longer lifespan. One study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology<\/a> followed a cohort of more than 5,000 men for 46 years. Researchers found that higher rates of cardiorespiratory fitness, as determined by VO2 max, were associated with longer lives.<\/p>\n

For more expert advice on everything from VO2 max to how to train for a marathon, become a Runner\u2019s World Club member. Members have access to a library of 100+ coach-written training plans, alongside webinars, exclusive written content and the opportunity to review running gear. Become a Runner\u2019s World Club member<\/a> from just \u00a31 to unlock access \u2013 and enjoy loads more exclusive perks. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most runners, at some point, want to see how fast and hard they can go, even for just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":932186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[64,63,10236,538,137,5265],"class_list":["post-932185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-core","tag-fitness","tag-health","tag-service"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=932185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/932186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}