c2tweetcrew Rowing, rowing, rowing… and friends!

This topic was brought up on Twitter, and I think it’s important to know what it means and how you should look at it.

First, let me explain what VO2 Max is, how it’s calculated, and why it’s important, then we can discuss some of the other factors. VO2 Max in it’s most basic terms is a calculation of how much oxygen your body can use. It’s typically presented either as Liters/Min, or mL/kg/Min. So, as you might expect, the higher this number, the better. More oxygen absorbtion by your body means more oxygen for your muscle. And more oxygen for your muscles typically results in better performance. But as with any physical statistic, VO2 Max has to be taken with a grain of salt, especially coming from a formula.

Any “calculator” or other formula to calculate VO2 Max is just a “best guess”. To get true results you have to get a REAL test with a physician/lab. In the real tests they strap all manner of gear to you to measure the oxygen going in and the oxygen coming out. These tests are typically very expensive, due to the equipment and training required to perform them. But as far as most of these calculators go, they can be a decent predictor of your VO2 Max and are also a good indicator of any change you may be able to create in your VO2 Max.

VO2 Max is only important to know as an athlete in terms of measuring against yourself. There are no VO2 Max contests. No Gold Medals awarded. Knowing that value simply tells you where you are now, and if you track it, it may tell you which way your fitness is trending. It is not important to your actual fitness goals, because your VO2 Max may be different from the norm because of body weight, age, or body chemistry. Rowers tend to have very good VO2 Max as far as atheletes go, with some Olympic athletes gulping 8-10 Liters or more per minute! And VO2 Max typically only improves in large amounts when going from untrained, and out-of-shape, to trained (better scores, better muscle use during the exercise) and in-shape. VO2 Max measurements will plateau as you reach your body’s true VO2 Max.

As far as influencing your VO2 Max, there are several major factors that you can control:
– General Fitness Level: The more in-shape, the higher this number will be.
– Weight: Especially when measured as a function of weight (mL/kg/min), this is probably the biggest controlling factor you can influence.
– Technique/Training: For whatever exercise/activity you are using to measure your VO2 Max, you want to be well trained. The proper technique and training can greatly help your body in being able to sustain the effort required to measure VO2 Max.

And then there are the factors that are out of your hands:
– Age: Ultimately, VO2 max trends down over time, so the older you get, the lower your VO2 Max will likely be. Though, this is not always true.
– Body chemistry: This one can be good and bad. Some people simply process oxygen better than others. And some people seem to out-perform their VO2 Max. This is why it’s important to really only measure your stats against yourself over time, because you never know what outside factors may be influencing somebody else’s statistics.

Concept2 does provide a calculator online that is a good tool to show you how the different factors play in to this value: http://www.concept2.com/us/interactive/calculators/vo2max.asp

As you can see, there is a big influence from weight. To show you here are my numbers:
– My personal best 2k time is 6:49.8
– My weight at the time was 185 lbs.
– I considered myself “Not highly trained” at the time

This gives me a VO2 Max of 54.14, which falls into the “Excellent” category according to Concept2. But, if I dropped 5 pounds this number would go up ~1.5. However, my goal for this year is to train harder, with a coach and get my time down below 6:30. I expect to be about the same weight. This performance change, which I consider a large improvement (dropping 20 seconds off a 2k time), results in an up-tick to 57.68, which is a lot more work than 5lbs, for marginal improvement.

But, simply going from “untrained” to “trained”; by kicking your training into high-gear and getting your body into shape, you can very quickly influence that number. A highly-trained athelete with my numbers processes nearly 20% more oxygen. (54.14 vs 64.87 or 19.82% improvement) With my training, these days, I am probably closer to “highly trained” than I was last year, and we will see how that pays off in both erg scores and VO2 Max.

In summary, use VO2 Max to plot your improvement, and measure your general fitness over time, but remember that it is simply a boiled down way to look at your fitness. That value can always be influenced (for good AND bad) by your habits, so strive to keep that number high if you are going to track it, and remember to look at other areas of your fitness as well!

See the Concept2 chart for the classifications and to approximate your VO2 Max!

http://www.concept2.com/us/interactive/calculators/vo2max.asp

Also, check out the Wikipedia article for more information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VO2_max

UPDATE:
I was thinking more about this and had one more thing to mention. There is one area where VO2 Max is actually a very poor predictor of performance. That is in endurance sports/races/distances. This points out, again, what VO2 Max is measuring. It’s looking at the maximum uptake of oxygen that the body can manage. For endurance sports your are often nowhere near this threshold, and as such, the limited impact it has is simply that if you have a particularly low VO2 Max, it could restrict your oxygen uptake and limit your ability to perform for a long time. Now, on the flip side, VO2 Max can affect endurance in the sense that the better your VO2 Max, the more likely you are to have better uptake at lower exertion, which means you wouldn’t have to work as hard to breathe during the endurance effort.