What counts as a good VO2 max
A good VO2 max is one that lands above the 50th percentile, the median, for your age and sex. VO2 max itself measures how many milliliters of oxygen your body uses per kilogram of body weight during a minute of maximum effort.
People often call the median the average VO2 max. In the FRIEND data, that’s the point where half of the group scores higher and half scores lower.
Using the chart’s own percentiles, every score falls into one of these bands:
- Below the 20th percentile: low for your age and sex.
- 20th to 49th percentile: below the middle.
- 50th to 79th percentile: above the middle.
- 80th percentile and up: top 20% for your age and sex.
- 90th percentile and up: top 10% for your age and sex.
These bands describe your position in the group who took the test, nothing more. They aren’t a diagnosis, and a lower band doesn’t mean something is medically wrong. So a “normal” VO2 max, in this sense, is a score near the middle for your age and sex.
Say a man in his 50s scores 32 ml/kg/min. The median for his group is 29.2 and the 80th percentile is 38.3. His score is above the middle, a little past the 60th percentile (31.8), but not yet in the top 20%.
Say a woman in her 60s scores 26 ml/kg/min. The 80th percentile for her group is 24.3 and the 90th is 27.3. She’s in the top 20%, a little short of the top 10%.
Why VO2 max charts disagree
VO2 max charts disagree because they measure differently, use different data and cover different populations. Here’s what each difference does to your number.
- Treadmill versus cycle: treadmill norms run about 22% (about 4.5 ml/kg/min) higher than cycle norms [1]. So a score from a cycle test will look low on a treadmill chart.
- Measured versus estimated: many online charts are built from formulas or older, non-lab data instead of a direct lab test. A chart that never tested anyone in a lab is a rougher guess than one built from maximal-effort tests.
- Older versus newer norms: the 2021 US treadmill update came out 1.5 to 4.6 ml/kg/min lower than the 2015 version it replaced [1]. In plain words, the same score can rank higher on the newer chart because the yardstick moved.
- Country and population: the FRIEND data comes from US labs, and the researchers say to apply it cautiously outside the United States [1]. Norms built on one country’s population aren’t automatically the right match for another.
What to do: compare your number with a chart that matches how it was measured. A treadmill VO2 max belongs next to treadmill norms, and the chart above uses only FRIEND treadmill norms.
Is your watch’s VO2 max accurate?
It depends on whether your watch uses resting data or exercise data to get the number. A review pooled 14 studies that checked watch readings against lab tests.
Watches that used resting data read about 2.2 ml/kg/min too high on average. For most single readings, the error fell between about 13 ml/kg/min too low and 17 too high [11].
Watches that used exercise data were right on average, off by only about 0.1 ml/kg/min. Still, a single reading could be off by about 10 ml/kg/min in either direction [11].
What this means for you: treat your watch’s VO2 max like your resting heart rate, a number for spotting trends over weeks and months, not a verdict on one day. For a precise number, you need a lab test.
There’s a reassuring side to this. A review of 42 studies, with 3.8 million observations, compared the two [6]. Estimated fitness predicted the risk of death almost as well as measured fitness across large groups.
In that review, each extra MET was linked to about 14% lower risk of death. A MET is a unit of oxygen use equal to 3.5 ml/kg/min. So an estimate still says something about risk, even when it’s off for one person.
Why VO2 max matters for longevity
VO2 max matters for longevity because low fitness is linked to a much higher risk of death. It’s also one of the markers of biological age you can measure.
A study followed 122,007 adults for a median of 8.4 years after a treadmill test. Low fitness was linked to about 5 times the risk of death, compared with the fittest group, which the researchers called “elite” [2].
In that study, low fitness carried as much risk as smoking, diabetes or coronary artery disease, or more. The link also didn’t level off at the top. The elite group had lower risk than the next group down, even in people aged 70 and over [2].
A separate study of 750,302 US veterans aged 30 to 95, followed for a median of 10.2 years, found the same pattern. The least fit had about 4 times the risk of death of the most fit, across ages, sexes and races [3]. Being extremely fit did not raise risk.
Smaller differences matter in the data too. A pooled analysis of 37 studies and 2,258,029 people linked each extra MET to about 11% lower risk of death [5]. One MET equals 3.5 ml/kg/min on your VO2 max.
Changes over time track with risk as well. In 93,060 adults tested twice, at least a year apart, a gain of 1 MET or more was linked to lower risk of death [4]. A loss of 1 MET or more was linked to higher risk.
The American Heart Association has proposed fitness as a “vital sign” that doctors should check [7].
These studies show links. They can’t prove that fitness itself is the cause, because fitter people may differ from less fit people in other ways, too.
How VO2 max changes with age
VO2 max falls with age, and the fall gets faster later in life. In the FRIEND data, the median is about 13.5% lower with each decade of age, roughly 4 ml/kg/min [1].
A study that retested 810 adults aged 21 to 87 over a median of 7.9 years found the decline speeds up. It’s about 3% to 6% per decade in the 20s and 30s, and more than 20% per decade from the 70s onward [8].
Why it matters: everyday tasks like climbing stairs or carrying groceries cost a fairly fixed amount of oxygen. As your ceiling falls, those same tasks use up more of what you have left. That’s why they can start to feel harder even when nothing else has changed.
Can you raise VO2 max after 60?
Yes, VO2 max still responds to training after 60. A review looked at 29 trials with 1,227 adults aged 60 and over, about 65 on average [9]. Both interval training (short bursts of hard effort) and steady moderate training raised VO2 max.
The Generation 100 trial followed 1,567 adults aged 70 to 77 for five years, with two supervised sessions a week. The interval group showed a trend toward fewer deaths than a group that followed general activity guidelines. But the result wasn’t statistically significant, so it could be down to chance [10].
Your age alone doesn’t rule out gains.
How to measure your VO2 max
You have three routes to a VO2 max number. The more accurate the route, the less convenient it is.
A lab test, called a cardiopulmonary exercise test, is the most accurate. It measures your oxygen use directly while you exercise to full effort under supervision. The chart above comes from this kind of test.
A smartwatch estimate is the easiest. It’s good for tracking your trend over weeks and months.
The third route is an estimate from a walking or running test, or from a VO2 max calculator.
Get cleared by your doctor before any max-effort test if you:
- have heart disease
- get chest pain or shortness of breath when you exert yourself
- haven’t exercised in a long time