VO2max by age: chart for men and women

What the chart shows

VO2max is written in milliliters of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute, shortened to ml/kg/min. Higher means more aerobic capacity. It falls steadily with age in both sexes, and men's averages sit above women's at every age.

The chart above comes from one large study of healthy Norwegian adults, each tested on a treadmill in a lab. The mean and standard deviation columns are the paper's own figures. The range columns are added here, worked out from those two numbers.

Reading the ranges

Each range covers the middle of its group. If the values are spread in a rough bell shape, about two in three people sit inside it. The rest are split above and below.

Take a 45-year-old woman with an estimate of 41. Her age group's mean is 38.4, and its range runs from 31.5 to 45.3. She sits a little above the middle, well inside the span most of her group occupied.

The ranges are not grades. Nothing on this chart says that 46 is good or that 32 is poor. It only says where people of a given age and sex were found when they were measured.

Two things make the comparison loose. First, the Norwegian group was fitter than comparable groups in North America. The paper puts its scaled VO2max about 20% higher across both sexes and all ages, so a North American reader will tend to land lower here. Second, these people were measured in a lab, and a field-test result is an estimate. A difference of a few points is well within the noise.

So what is a good VO2max?

The useful question is where you sit against people of your age and sex, and whether that position moves over time. A reading near the top of your group's range means more aerobic capacity than most of your peers in this study. A reading near the bottom means less.

The trend in your own numbers says more than any single reading. Repeat the same test, on the same course, in similar weather, a few months apart. If the estimate climbs, your capacity has probably climbed with it.

Using the field-test tables

Find your distance or time and read across. Results that fall between rows get an exact figure from the calculator. The two tables behave differently, and the difference is worth knowing.

The Cooper table rises by the same step every row. Its equation is a straight line, so each extra 200 meters adds the same 4.5 or so. The 1.5-mile table does not. Its equation divides by your time, so each 30 seconds is worth more at the fast end than at the slow end.

Which test to use

• Cooper 12-minute run: suits a measured track, where laps make the distance easy to count. You run for a fixed time, so you need a watch and someone or something to mark where you stop.
• 1.5-mile run: suits any accurately measured course. You run a fixed distance and only need the finish time. That is often easier to record on your own.
• Resting pulse method: needs no hard effort at all. It is the option when a flat-out run is not a good idea. It is also the loosest estimate of the three.

Whichever you pick, keep using it. Switching tests between attempts mixes two kinds of error and makes the trend hard to read.

Why the three methods disagree

Each equation was fitted to a different group of people doing a different task. None of them sees your oxygen use. Each one takes something easy to record, such as meters run, minutes taken or beats counted, and maps it onto a line drawn through someone else's data.

Even the two running tests part ways at the same speed. The table below pairs Cooper distances with the 1.5-mile time you would post at that same speed, rounded to the second.

For slower runners, the 1.5-mile test gives the higher number. For faster ones, Cooper does. The two lines cross at about 2,600 meters in 12 minutes, the same speed as an 11:08 1.5-mile. Neither is wrong. They are two straight-ish lines through different data, and how far apart they sit is a fair picture of how uncertain a field estimate is.

Estimating from a resting pulse adds another layer. It relies on an age-based maximum heart rate, which can be off by ten beats or more for one person. That error passes straight into the estimate.

Before you run a maximal test

Both running tests only work as all-out efforts. That is a real strain on the heart and lungs.

• See a doctor first if your heart or lungs have ever given you trouble, or you take medicine that affects your heart rate. The same applies in pregnancy, after illness or injury, or after a long break from hard exercise.
• Warm up properly. Ten minutes of easy running and a few short pick-ups beforehand is common practice.
• Stop at once if you feel chest pain, faintness, unusual breathlessness or an irregular heartbeat.
• Pick a cool, calm day on a flat course. Heat and wind lower the result and raise the strain.

What you have read here is general information on published equations and reference data. It does not assess your fitness and is not medical advice. An estimated VO2max cannot diagnose anything, and a reading below the average for your age is not a health finding. If you are not sure a flat-out run is safe for you, ask a doctor first.

Sources

• Loe H, Rognmo Ø, Saltin B, Wisløff U (2013). “Aerobic Capacity Reference Data in 3816 Healthy Men and Women 20–90 Years.” PLoS ONE 8(5): e64319. CC BY. journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0064319