My VO2 Max barely moved for 2 years
For two years my VO2 max barely moved. I was riding regularly, I felt reasonably fit, and my Garmin estimate sat stubbornly between 43 and 46.
In January, with the Bowral Classic (150 km) on the calendar, I changed how I trained. Nine months later the number is 55. At 44, that places me in the top 5% for men my age.
I am sharing this not because the number is remarkable, but because the pattern is so common. Many of my patients exercise consistently and still plateau. The issue is rarely effort. It is usually structure.
The plateau is the part most people recognise. Regular exercise maintained my fitness, but it did not improve it.
VO2 max is the most oxygen your body can take in and use during hard exercise. It reflects how well your lungs, heart and muscles work together. Put simply, it is the size of your engine.
It is also one of the strongest predictors of how long we live. In a Cleveland Clinic study of patients who underwent treadmill testing and were followed for years, low cardiorespiratory fitness carried a mortality risk comparable to, or greater than, smoking, diabetes and coronary artery disease. The fitter people were, the longer they lived, and the researchers found no upper limit to that benefit.
VO2 max falls with age, by roughly 10% per decade from early adulthood, and the decline tends to accelerate later in life. That decline is not fixed. Training slows it at any age, and in practical terms it determines whether climbing stairs, carrying luggage or keeping up with grandchildren feels easy or difficult at 75.
The improvement came in two distinct phases, and the order mattered.
January to March: intensity. I kept my weekly time on the bike modest, around two hours, but made a portion of it genuinely hard. Short, very hard intervals took my VO2 max from 46 to 52 in roughly three months.
July to September: volume. Once the intensity was in place, I built the base underneath it. Weekly riding time more than doubled, to 4.8 hours, and weekly climbing rose from 470 m to 1,380 m. That took me from 52 to 55. Over the same period, my best 20-minute power rose from 184 to 217 watts.
Time in every zone more than doubled, but the hardest work grew most, from five minutes a week to almost half an hour.
None of this is exotic. What changed was that every session had a purpose, and the hard sessions were genuinely hard.
Against the Cooper Institute norms for men aged 40 to 49, I moved from the Good band to Superior, the top 5%.
The comparison that matters more to me is against my own age. A VO2 max of 55 would also rate as Superior for men in their thirties. The aim is not a ranking, but a larger reserve to draw on as the natural decline begins.
This is one person's data, and I want to be clear about its limits.
- The numbers are Garmin estimates, derived from heart rate and power, not a laboratory test. Wearable estimates are useful for tracking a trend in the same person over time, but they can differ from a measured VO2 max by several points in either direction.
- The gold standard remains a cardiopulmonary exercise test with gas analysis.
- A training response of this size is not guaranteed. Starting point, genetics, sleep, recovery and consistency all shape how much and how quickly the number moves.
- High-intensity work is not the right starting point for everyone. If you have known heart disease, symptoms on exertion, or have been inactive for some time, speak to your doctor before adding hard intervals.
VO2 max is one of the most powerful levers we have for healthy ageing, and it responds to training at any age. In clinic it sits alongside blood pressure, lipids and body composition as a number I want every patient to know. The approach is simple, even if the work is not.
For those who want to apply these four steps with clinical oversight. The Performance Programme begins with a comprehensive initial assessment to establish your baseline, then continues as an ongoing, physician-led programme with regular review, so that training is guided by data rather than guesswork.
It is designed for people who are already active and want to keep improving, safely, with the aim of maintaining strength, capacity and independence well into later life.
Access the Performance Longevity Programme →The goal is not simply to live longer, but to remain stronger, more capable and more independent for longer. Your engine is a large part of that.
Book a consultation to measure your VO2 max →2. Fleg JL, Morrell CH, Bos AG, et al. Accelerated longitudinal decline of aerobic capacity in healthy older adults. Circulation. 2005;112(5):674-682.
3. The Cooper Institute. VO2 max standard ratings by age and sex, as published by Garmin.
4. Kodama S, Saito K, Tanaka S, et al. Cardiorespiratory fitness as a quantitative predictor of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular events in healthy men and women: a meta-analysis. JAMA. 2009;301(19):2024-2035.
More on cardiorespiratory fitness and healthy ageing to come.
