\u201cGreat! I\u2019m just upping the incline again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another thumbs up from me\u2026 although it is starting to get noticeably more arduous with each added degree of steepness. Sweat dripping off me and audibly gasping for air, I channel my inner Kate Bush \u2013 \u201ckeep running up that hill!<\/a>\u201d \u2013 and plough on. Only a few minutes more and I\u2019ll find out the magic number that forms a crucial part of my overall health<\/a> and longevity potential<\/a>.<\/p>\n I\u2019m here at a specialised clinic in east London to get my VO2 max measured. I\u2019d never heard the term until a few years ago; now, it seems to be cropping up everywhere, having gone from the preserve of elite athletes<\/a> to the health and wellness mainstream, with more and more content online around how to \u201cmaxx\u201d your max. <\/p>\n So what is it, exactly? <\/p>\n \u201cIn its strictest sense, VO2 max is describing something called oxygen<\/a> consumption,\u201d says Professor James Hull, consultant respiratory physician at The Institute of Sport Exercise and Health (ISEH). \u201cIt\u2019s a measure that describes the amount of oxygen that the body is able to use and metabolise.\u201d As we exercise, and our exertion level goes up, more oxygen is consumed \u2013 and the amount that\u2019s able to be consumed is dependent on the efficiency of the interactions between our muscles, circulation, heart and lungs. <\/p>\n \u201cOverall, it\u2019s an integrated measure of your cardio<\/a>, metabolic and respiratory fitness<\/a> or capability,\u201d adds Hull. <\/p>\n Though high-tech equipment is employed to test it these days, the fundamental concept of VO2 max has been around for well over a century.<\/p>\n It was first discovered by a British physiologist named AV. Hill in the early 1900s. He made participants run around a grass track while wearing a mask over their mouth with a long hose coming out of the end; Hill or one of his team would ride behind them on a bicycle while holding up a meteorological bag to capture the air they expired. He found that, although the amount of oxygen consumed increased the faster people ran, there was always a ceiling, a point at which it levelled off. This was the maximum volume of oxygen an individual was able to consume \u2013 aka, their VO2 max.<\/p>\n The premise remains the same, though today it\u2019s measured by putting an individual on a treadmill or bike while heart rate monitors and an oxygen mask are attached. The strenuousness of the exercise goes up gradually over the course of about eight to 15 minutes after an initial warm-up. The idea is to work to failure \u2013 stopping when you\u2019ve reached your absolute limit. <\/p>\n VO2 max is usually expressed as the maximum volume of oxygen in millimetres, per kilogram of bodyweight, per minute that can be utilised when you\u2019ve reached peak exertion.<\/p>\n In cardio fitness terms, the higher the VO2 max, the better. Scores range from around 12 ml\/kg\/min, typically the minimum threshold required to walk unassisted (this can drop under 10 for those with severe, end-stage congestive heart failure or extreme physical debilitation), to up to around 95 ml\/kg\/min for male and 85 ml\/kg\/min for female elite endurance athletes. <\/p>\n Scores are separated into five categories: poor, fair, average, good and superior. The cut-off points for these brackets are adjusted for biological sex and age; VO2 max decreases as we get older.<\/p>\n \u201cAgeing<\/a> has deleterious consequences for just about every system in the body, and it\u2019s also inexorable \u2013 we can\u2019t stop it<\/a>,\u201d says Dr Greg Grosicki from health tracker Whoop<\/a>\u2019s research science team. \u201cBut being physically active over time is also the best way to prevent it.\u201d One study<\/a> found that, although VO2 max is affected by the ageing process, dropping by 10 per cent per decade on average, it can improve by approximately 15 to 20 per cent at any age with regular endurance training. <\/p>\n It\u2019s quite a powerful tool, way more powerful for an average person than, I would say, even for athletes<\/p>\n Dr Harpal Bains, longevity expert<\/p>\n Around 50 per cent of our VO2 max will be determined by genetics, while the other half is down to how we exercise.<\/p>\n It\u2019s obvious why professional athletes at the top of their game might be interested in VO2 max; at that level, the smallest micro-gains in performance can be the difference between medalling and coming in the middle of the pack. But, increasingly, it has been recognised as a metric that might be more beneficial for \u201ccivilians\u201d to be aware of. Far from being a simple test of cardiovascular fitness, it\u2019s now held up as a key measure in the burgeoning world of longevity<\/a> medicine.<\/p>\n Dr Andy Galpin, one of the world\u2019s leading exercise physiologists, espouses VO2 max as the greatest predictor of not just lifespan, but healthy lifespan (living better for longer); Peter Attia, podcaster and author of Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity, has consistently asserted that \u201cVO2 max is the singular most powerful marker for longevity\u201d; Bryan Johnson, the infamous billionaire poster-boy<\/a> for experimental longevity medicine, often cites it as the ultimate indicator of overall health.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s quite a powerful tool, way more powerful for an average person than, I would say, even for athletes,\u201d says Dr Harpal Bains, founder and medical director of Harpal Clinic, a UK private practice specialising in functional and longevity medicine. \u201cThe real utility is in the everyday person who is fairly sedentary \u2013 and them making changes based on the implications of that number.\u201d<\/p>\n In fact, one study found that the biggest longevity gains happen when a person moves from the least-fit group to modestly fit, dropping their mortality risk by nearly half. <\/p>\n A review<\/a> of scientific papers from the University of Innsbruck found that VO2 max is the strongest independent predictor of future life expectancy in both healthy and cardiorespiratory-diseased individuals; numerous studies have reported that it has a significant influence on survival rate in patients suffering from lung and\/or cardiovascular diseases and cancer.<\/p>\n The general public seems to be grasping this link with overall health more and more. Joe tells me that, of the influx of clients who come in to get tested at My Vital Metrics, roughly 80 per cent will cite health as the primary motivation for wanting to know their VO2 max. Most health wearables have added a VO2 max metric to their suite of data in recent years in response to user demand.<\/p>\n It\u2019s important to note, however, that the only way of finding out your real VO2 max score as an individual is to go, in-person, to a lab or clinic and get it tested like I did \u2013 complete with oxygen mask. <\/p>\n Any number you\u2019re given from a tech wearable, such as a watch or heart rate monitor, is not personal to you, but calibrated from large data sets \u2013 the device is estimating what your VO2 is likely to be based on your weight, sex, activity level and heart rate, comparing these against existing population data. These estimates vary wildly in accuracy depending on the brand of wearable and the individual.<\/p>\n Studies<\/a> looking at the Apple Watch, Garmin<\/a> Fenix 6 and Fitbit<\/a> have found a mean absolute percentage error of 7 to 16 per cent. Overall, they consistently underestimate VO2 max in fit people, and overestimate it in unfit people. <\/p>\n Regardless, the real benefit here can be in seeing your original estimate as a baseline, and letting that motivate you to move the dial, improving your fitness through increasing cardio or high-intensity exercise.<\/p>\n The fixation on VO2 max misses out on our ideal goal of diversity of exercise<\/p>\n Eric Topol, cardiologist<\/p>\n The experts I speak to stress that it\u2019s not really worth obsessing over your VO2 max number specifically \u2013 what\u2019s far more indicative of good health and improved longevity is a holistic, balanced approach that incorporates cardio, strength and stability training<\/a>. The latter two are just as fundamental when it comes to having better health outcomes as we age.<\/p>\n Some have argued that far too much importance has been placed on VO2 max in general. Many of the studies often quoted as linking better VO2 max with reduced mortality risk aren\u2019t based on VO2 max data at all \u2013 they are based on physical activity tests and METs (Metabolic Equivalent of Task) data, which measures how much energy someone\u2019s body uses during physical activity. Though the two are frequently conflated, they\u2019re different metrics.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fixation on VO2 max, which is not actually supported by the data, misses out on our ideal goal of diversity of exercise, including strength and balance training,\u201d warned Eric Topol<\/a>, an American cardiologist and author of Super Agers: An Evidence-Based Approach to Longevity, earlier this year in a blog post entitled \u201cThe Flawed VO2 Max Craze\u201d. <\/p>\n It\u2019s vital to look at the big picture, too. \u201cOne has to be cautious about the type of individual that you\u2019re looking at,\u201d advises Hull. He cites this example: you can be an incredibly fit, muscular, relatively high BMI individual, working out well, eating the right food, sleeping well \u2013 and have a VO2 max that\u2019s much lower than a very underweight endurance runner<\/a> who eats and sleeps poorly and is highly stressed. \u201cUsing that marker as a tick box index of \u2018am I in good health, or am I in the right place for long-term good health?\u2019 is clearly not the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"My](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1000072037.jpg\")
My Vital Metrics offers a suite of physical tests, including VO2 max (Helen Coffey)<\/p>\n![\"Participants](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1000072043.jpg\")
Participants exercise to ‘failure’ to find out how much oxygen their body can consume (Helen Coffey)<\/p>\n
![\"Test](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/20260805_134257.jpg\")
Test complete! Helen is delighted to discover she’s in the \u2018superior\u2019 category (Helen Coffey)<\/p>\n