If you’ve been keeping up with the world of fitness, you’ve definitely seen the term VO2 Max before. After being used for decades to help athletes get a better view of their cardiovascular fitness and endurance, the VO2 Max is now becoming gradually mainstream. If you’ve measured your VO2 Max or if you have an estimate from your smart watch, you might be wondering what you can do to increase your number. Here’s what you need to know.

Why Would You Want to Increase Your VO2 Max?

Before we look at how you can increase your VO2 Max, let’s first consider why you would want to do so.

VO2 Max is often used as a way to determine how well athletes can perform - more particularly; it provides an indication of their endurance and capacity.

Among the general population, however, VO2 Max also offers an indication of general health. In fact, one research paper explains that VO2 Max can even be considered an indicator of cardiovascular health, and that a low level might be associated with a higher risk for cardiovascular diseases.

Because the VO2 Max is an excellent indicator of your fitness level, you can use this measurement to determine if your fitness program is actually working. By increasing your VO2 Max, you can also expect other benefits, apart from better performance during your exercises.

Your general health will also begin to improve when your VO2 Max levels are higher. Remember that this is a measurement of how much oxygen your body can use at intense levels of exercise. When you increase it, you’re making your body more capable of fully utilizing the oxygen you get from the air you breathe in. Oxygen plays a role in every cell of your body.

By increasing your cardiovascular capacity, your heart muscle becomes stronger and doesn’t need to work as hard on a daily basis to ensure blood gets pumped throughout your entire body.

Increasing VO2 Max: Step by Step Guide

If you’re looking to increase your VO2 Max, it’s important to work with data.

Here’s a step-by-step system that you can use to increase your VO2 Max. Before that, however, you should first set up a system that allows you to record your data - with a focus on your actual VO2 Max level. As you may already know, you’ll need to undergo a VO2 Max test on a treadmill or exercise bike for this. Once you have this data, you can start to go through the steps we’re going to share - that way, you have a baseline VO2 Max to work with, and you can compare any tests you do in the future with this number.

1. Calculate Your Maximum Heart Rate

The first step is to determine what your maximum heart rate is. There’s a very simple calculation that you can use to get this rating - and that’s going to come in handy when you actually start to exercise.

You’re going to start with the number 220 and deduct your current age from this number. For example, if you’re 25, then your maximum heart rate is 195.

Now, one thing to keep in mind is the fact that this is only a guide. You have to consider things like your current health and fitness level. This can have an impact on what would be a “safe” maximum heart rate to train at.

 The idea here is to exercise at an intensity level where you be close to your maximum heart rate - that’s why it’s important that you begin by calculating this value before you continue with this guide.

2. Choose Your Workouts

Now that you have a better idea of your maximum heart rate, it’s time to consider what kind of exercises you’re going to do.

When it comes to increasing your VO2 Max, it’s really important to focus on exercises that have a high level of intensity. You need to get your heart rate up, and then keep it there.

Apart from intensity, research also suggests that interval training can be an incredibly useful choice for people who want to increase their VO2 Max. One study found that High Intensity Interval Training, often also called HIIT, is ideal when it comes to VO2 Max. The study analyzed data from multiple decades to determine the efficacy and found that most people experience an increase in VO2 Max after just three weeks of HIIT exercises.

There are, of course, different types of exercises that you can include. Consider a variety, as that’s going to help keep things engaging and fresh. Cycling, skiing, swimming, running are just a few activities that you can consider.

The idea here is to decide what kind of exercises you’re going to do, and then to create a plan. Set up a schedule that ensures you exercise on multiple days of the week, as consistency is an important factor in this case.

3. Train Close To Your Maximum Heart Rate

You should have a detailed schedule for exercise at this point - and now is the time to start working out.  

In the first step, you calculated your maximum heart rate. Now, you need to make sure you have a way to actually keep track of your heart rate when you exercise. Something as simple as a fitness watch can work great - it shows you your heart rate in real-time, so you know when to increase or decrease the intensity of exercise. You don’t want to reach your exact maximum heart rate, but rather try to remain in a 90% to 95% ratio. However, if you’re not a very active person and trying to start working on your fitness, then you might need to work at a lower percentage of your maximum heart rate for the time being. Then, you can gradually work your way up.

4. Monitor VO2 Max and Repeat

Now that you’ve been training close to your maximum heart rate, you should gradually begin to notice improvements in your performance. But, it’s important to actually track your progress with data. You can find a VO2 Max test location here.

At this point, you should already have a baseline for your VO2 Max. Now, it’s time to test it again. Since the process can take some time, it’s a good idea to test your VO2 Max every three to six months. However, if you’re just getting started or you have a specific goal in mind, you might also benefit from more frequent testing - such as every six or eight weeks.

Use your Fitnescity dashboard to keep a record of all the data you collect, which will help you see how your VO2 Max gradually begins to increase as you work toward your goal rating.

At this point, you need to consider if the exercise program you use helped to improve your VO2 Max. If you aren’t seeing the results you are looking for, then it’s time to go back and rework your exercise program. You may need to make some adjustments to the specific workouts, their intensity, or how long you perform each of them.

Conclusion

VO2 Max has become a golden standard when you want to measure your health and cardiovascular fitness. Increasing VO2 Max not only helps to improve your physical performance, but also boosts your health, possibly even extending your lifespan in the process. Start with the tips we shared to help you increase your VO2 Max levels.

References

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK538336/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7523886/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3774727/