VO₂ Max: The Number That Shapes Your Lifespan

This afternoon I tested my VO₂ max on my bike.

I took the highest average power I'd recorded over five minutes, gave it to the AI Gemini, and asked it to estimate my VO₂ max and rank it against people my age.

Gemini's reply is in the image below:

As you can see, my VO₂ max is only average for my age group. Slip back a little more and I'd be a poor student.

And that's even with thousands of kilometers of riding data over the past year.

Since I started cycling, I've rarely done fitness tests. I'd done just one FTP (functional threshold power) test before.

This VO₂ max test was inspired by Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity.

The book is a popular science title co-written by the physician Peter Attia, MD, and the writer Bill Gifford.

It has a lot to say about exercise, mainly aerobic training, strength training and balance training.

In the aerobic section, the author puts great weight on two ideas: aerobic base and maximal oxygen uptake (VO₂ max).

That's why I wanted to test my VO₂ max.

Based on the data and theory in the book, I reached a conclusion: for ordinary people, whether they cycle or not, VO₂ max has broader meaning and more solid real-world value than FTP.

So even if you don't ride or don't know what FTP is, the sections below will show why VO₂ max matters to everyone.

(1) What Is VO₂ Max?

Maximal oxygen uptake (VO₂ max): the highest amount of oxygen the body's tissue cells can consume or use at sea level during the most intense exercise.

Put simply, VO₂ max measures the most oxygen a person can take in, deliver and use in one minute during hard exercise.

(2) VO₂ Max Is More Universal Than FTP

1. Physiology

VO₂ max is considered the best measure of a person's aerobic work capacity and cardiorespiratory endurance.

If the body is an engine, VO₂ max decides the engine's maximum capacity, its ceiling of potential.

FTP mainly measures how much power you can hold for a long time, and in that process you don't necessarily use 100% of your VO₂ max.

So you can think of VO₂ max as the upper limit of your endurance ability. Raise it, and in theory the room for FTP to rise goes up too.

2. Exercise science

FTP, as a metric, can mostly only be applied to assessing cycling performance,

while VO₂ max is an extremely important and standard metric in every sport, such as swimming, distance running and skiing.

VO₂ max can be measured in any sport where you can do a high-intensity, all-out test, including but not limited to running, cycling and rowing machines.

So in exercise science, VO₂ max is a more universal tool for assessing fitness.

"Why does this matter? Because our VO₂ max is a very good proxy measure of our fitness. It tells us what we can do, and what we can't."

3. Closely tied to life and health.

A large body of epidemiological research shows that VO₂ max is inversely related to cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality.

In other words, the higher your VO₂ max, the longer you generally live and the lower your risk of chronic disease.

"One reason I stress this so much is that this measure of peak aerobic capacity correlates strongly with lifespan... Even if you don't take part in high-level endurance sports, your VO₂ max is an important number you can and should know."

(3) VO₂ Max Has More Real-World Value Than FTP

In sum, VO₂ max is more fundamental and more universal than FTP.

That's why I said at the start that for ordinary people, whether they cycle or not, VO₂ max has broader meaning and more solid real-world value than FTP.

For cycling enthusiasts who ride for fitness especially, VO₂ max has even more long-term value. As we age, people may give up cycling and FTP loses its meaning, but VO₂ max stays with you as a companion indicator of a healthy life.

VO₂ max measures not only our athletic ability but also our ability to live daily life, like climbing a mountain or a few flights of stairs.

So whether you're a cyclist or an ordinary person.

Whether or not you ride, and whether or not you do any other exercise.

For now, VO₂ max is a major indicator for scientifically measuring your health.

VO₂ max drops sharply and clearly as we age.

We don't need to lose heart over this.

Because VO₂ max is also a metric you can improve through training at any age.

"Research shows your VO₂ max falls by about 10% every decade, and possibly by 15% after fifty. So having an average or even above-average VO₂ max now isn't enough."

"Remember, however much you raise your VO₂ max, it will improve your life, not only in how long you live but in your quality of life, today and in the future. Raising your VO₂ max from the bottom quartile to the top quartile (that is, from below average) is associated with almost a 50% reduction in all-cause mortality."

So there's no need to be anxious about age. Start now. It's never too late.