{"id":131478,"date":"2025-09-12T04:57:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T04:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/131478\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T04:57:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T04:57:17","slug":"a-no-dread-vo2max-test-is-here-heres-what-happened-when-i-tried-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/131478\/","title":{"rendered":"A No-Dread VO2max Test Is Here. Here’s What Happened When I Tried It"},"content":{"rendered":"

FOR ABOUT A a year, an exercise physiologist I know kept offering to do a VO2 max test on me. For more than a year, I\u2019d been resisting it. Not because it\u2019s not important. Plenty of trends have come and gone in my decades as a health editor, but VO2 max has been a nonstop part of the fitness conversation since before I even got in the game. <\/p>\n

As a coach and competitive triathlete, I knew that high numbers are generally linked to high performance\u2014the test quantifies the size of your aerobic engine. But now it\u2019s having a serious moment in the spotlight because VO2 max has been unquestionably linked to a longer life (and it can even tell you something about how your heart is aging).<\/p>\n

As an endurance athlete, endure is what I do for 6, 8, 10 hours in events like half-Ironmans<\/a> and 28-mile swims. But the claustrophobia I felt during a 10-minute VO2 max test about two years ago put me off getting another, even though I\u2019d managed to misplace the results. Plus, they\u2019d only be marginally useful now, since VO2 max changes with the training you\u2019re doing (or not doing).<\/p>\n

But I\u2019d been noticing that I wasn\u2019t putting out as many watts on the bike as usual and wasn\u2019t hitting my splits in the pool, even though I wasn\u2019t just phoning in my workouts. What if my VO2 max was lower than it should be for my age? What if the training I\u2019d been doing to raise it wasn\u2019t tough enough?<\/p>\n

I dreaded the test. It wasn\u2019t the max effort I worried about. It was the apparatus.<\/p>\n

VO2 is measured by tracking what you\u2019re inhaling and exhaling as you ramp up your effort all the way on a treadmill or bike. That means the people running the test need to make sure no gases escape. Last time I got it done, that meant my nose was blocked with a nose clip while a mask attached to a hose covered my mouth, which is pretty unnerving, especially if you don\u2019t like feeling as if you\u2019re suffocating. My heart rate was a visible chronicle of my panic.<\/p>\n

But about a month ago, I signed up to beta test a new high-performance and health care company called Eternal<\/a>. I was fully aware that in order to get a solid picture of my health, they needed to get my VO2 max, so I caved. The day came. The technicians got everything rigged up, and\u2026<\/p>\n

Hey, wait! I could breathe! They\u2019d put me into the game-changing VO2 Master<\/a>, a portable collection device that has a flexible, comfortable mask that covers both your nose and mouth. Without the claustrophobia, you can just focus on giving your all to the test. That type of mask is pretty available for VO2 max tests now (it was originally designed for anesthesia). And that\u2019s a good thing, because this test is one more access road to knowing more than ever about how our bodies are doing. <\/p>\n

For me, the experience didn\u2019t just give me my VO2 max. It reminded me that dread isn\u2019t a terribly useful health strategy. Committing to the test pointed out that tech changes fast, and old information can leave you stuck.<\/p>\n

And with VO2 max, you don\u2019t have to fear the result\u2014you can move that number upward with short efforts that push you, even if it\u2019s in the basement to start with. (This workout<\/a> is one good way to boost it.) Yet VO2 max isn\u2019t everything. Mine ended up showing me that the high-intensity training I\u2019ve been doing has been working after all. But it also means I need to look elsewhere\u2014efficiency, recovery, nutrition, or a myriad of other factors\u2014if I\u2019m going to climb my way up the race results. But of course, I\u2019ll keep the VO2 training too. And if I wonder how well I\u2019m doing on it? At least I won\u2019t dread the test anymore.<\/p>\n

Related Stories\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Marty Munson, currently the health director of Men’s Health, has been a health editor at properties including Marie Claire, Prevention, Shape and RealAge. She’s also certified as a swim and triathlon coach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FOR ABOUT A a year, an exercise physiologist I know kept offering to do a VO2 max test…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[61912,2785,61913,381,6647,102,380,61911,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-131478","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-and-i-tried-it","9":"tag-content-type-how-to-service","10":"tag-contentid-2004c4f4-6985-48b2-a056-0e7d7748d1f6","11":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","12":"tag-fitness","13":"tag-health","14":"tag-locale-us","15":"tag-shorttitle-a-no-dread-vo2max-test-is-here","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}