**The maximum rate of oxygen consumption per unit of time, a limit for how much energy you can expend through aerobic processes.** VO2 Max (VO2MAX, or $VO_2 Max$ is the maximum rate of oxygen consumption per unit of time. It's the limit to how much energy you can expend through aerobic means. It's **not** what enables you to sprint at full speed for 30 seconds. It's what enables you to run a mile as fast as you can. It's related to the final stage of the [[3 Types of Energy Supply in Mammals]]. VO2 Max is a powerful predictor of all-cause mortality. According to the [[Apple Health App]] (which cites its source, too) - these are the 'healthy' ranges: ![[IMG_8F0A1963CBC4-1.jpeg]] # Measuring Properly measuring VO2 Max involves a face mask and a treadmill. There are other means of testing it, but none of them are perfectly predictive and they all boil down to "how fast can you run over a many-minute period?". It's measured in mL/(kg*min). # Increasing Do cardiovascular exercise that causes you to breath hard. Maintain that state as long as you can. Do that often. A simple procedure per [[Outlive]] is to alternate between 4 minutes on and 4 minutes off of running very fast (but not sprinting) and letting your heart rate recover between sessions. More: [[Training VO2 Max]] # Averages Average healthy male is 35-40 mL/(kg * min). Female average is 27-31 mL/(kg * min). Training can raise this up to ~80 mL/(kg * min), if you're "elite". ## Relation to [[Zone 2]] A good mental model to think of, per Dr. Peter Attia, is to try to maximize the area of this triangle: ![[Pasted image 20250323100253.png|350]] **** # More ## Source - [VO2 max - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VO2_max) - [[Outlive]] ## Related - [[HIIT]] - [[3 Types of Energy Supply in Mammals]] - [[Facets of Fitness]]