The internet has found a perfectly useful physiological metric…
…and turned it into a religious war fought by GooRoos with ring lights.
One camp treats VO₂ max like the final boss of human health.
Get it higher.
Then higher again.
Keep going until your Garmin grants immortality and your mitochondria begin speaking Latin.
The other camp says VO₂ max is overhyped, badly measured and mostly useless because many studies used estimated METs instead of strapping every subject into a metabolic cart until they saw God.
Both camps are yelling.
Neither is being especially helpful.
That is why I was stoked to return to the Wise Athletes Podcast with Joe Lavelle for our fourth conversation:
Episode 183 | VO₂ Max or What?
Joe asked the question that actually matters:
“I’m 64. I don’t have unlimited time or unlimited recovery. How hard should I chase VO₂ max—and once it is good enough, where should my effort go next?”
Now we are cooking with oxygen.
VO₂ Max Matters, but So Does the Rest of You
Because yes…
Cardiorespiratory fitness, which VO₂ max helps quantify, is a strong predictor of mortality risk.
Dragging yourself out of the basement of the fitness range is associated with substantially lower risk.
One important nerd note: estimated fitness from an exercise test is not the same measurement as VO₂ max measured directly with a metabolic cart. But estimated fitness can still provide useful information. A large treadmill-testing study found lower mortality risk with higher fitness, with no observed upper limit of benefit. Read the study.
That does not mean your Garmin has discovered an enchanted escalator to immortality.
It also does not mean another tiny increase in your VO₂ max is always the best use of your next training hour.
Your time is limited.
Your recovery is limited.
At some point, grinding for another tiny increase may cost a metric ton of time, fatigue and recovery that would be better spent attacking your actual weak link.
Strength.
Muscle mass.
Body composition.
Balance.
Blood pressure.
The cardiovascular engine is only one part of the machine.
A darn tootin’ important part, but still one part.
What We Cover in the Episode
We also crawled deep into several other metabolic tunnels:
- Why the “VO₂ max is overblown” controversy often gets tangled in measurement details while missing the practical conclusion.
- How VO₂ max can be limited by oxygen delivery from the heart and circulation…
…or by oxygen use inside the working muscle. - Why Zone 2 can build aerobic fitness, support easier training days and burn calories, but making it your entire strategy can suck enormous moose ballZ when you are a time-crunched hooooman looking for a stronger training stimulus.
- How to program intervals so they improve performance instead of becoming weekly reenactments of your own death.
- How aging and training relate to changes in maximum heart rate, and why “use it or lose it” does not explain the whole story.
- How changes in your sleeping respiratory rate can offer clues about breathing and recovery while your watch is busy awarding you a readiness score of “purple banana.” A clue, though, is not a diagnosis of an oxygen-delivery problem.
Both continuous aerobic training and intervals can improve aerobic fitness. In a meta-analysis of middle-aged and older adults, interval training produced larger average VO₂ max improvements than moderate continuous training. That makes intervals a useful option, not a reason to throw every easy session into the lake. Read the review.
Maximum heart rate generally declines with age, including in active people. Staying fit matters, but training does not reliably erase that decline. Read the research.
Listen to VO₂ Max or What?
If you have ever stared at the VO₂ max estimate on your wearable and wondered whether to celebrate, panic or launch the watch into a nearby lake…
…this episode is for you.
