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Vo2 Max Revelation: The Life and Death Impact of Turbocharging Your Fitness Beyond Limits!
Quick, tell me the greatest predictor of how active you will be in old age. While you’re thinking about that, consider this: What’s the one measurement of your health that can tell you the chances of dying from any form of mortality?
Give up? Okay. Here’s the answer. It’s this measurement referred to as Vo2 Max, and scores of people have no idea what it is, why it’s important, or how to manage it. Fortunately, you are a subscriber to the Vitruvian Letter, so you are about to answer all these questions.
Get this—when looking at VO2 max in relation to all-cause mortality, we observe a clear trend. Simply elevating your VO2 max from ‘low’ (bottom 25th percentile) to ‘below average’ (25th to 50th percentile) is associated with a 50% reduction in all-cause mortality. When transitioning from ‘low’ to ‘above average’ (50th to 75th percentile), the risk reduction is closer to 70%!
First, I’m gonna give a down-and-dirty yet highly accurate definition of what Vo2 Max is. Here goes:
VO2 max, or maximal oxygen uptake, is a measure of the maximum amount of oxygen a person can use during intense exercise. It reflects how efficiently your body can deliver and use oxygen when you’re working out at your highest capacity. Essentially, it gauges your cardiovascular fitness and endurance.
Quick sidebar-people with low Vo2 Max did NOT do well with COVID. I don’t want to state the obvious, but of all the things you can do to protect yourself against COVID having a strong Vo2 Max ranks right at the top.
If, like me, you are keenly interested in making your golden years truly golden and not just fools gold, you want to be able to be active, vibrant, and less likely to die in your senior years. Of all the things I write about, discuss on the podcast, and advise on, nothing is of greater importance for future human performance than one’s Vo2 Max.
You’ve most likely seen people getting their Vo2 Max measured. This is when you see someone on a stationary bike or treadmill running or cycling with a face mask attached to a huge tube. It’s about an 8-minute session, highly uncomfortable, designed to measure your body’s ability to absorb oxygen when pushed.
Why am I writing about this now? Well, it’s simple. I’m following the herd. That’s right, I’m following the big-time experts like Andrew Humberman, Peter Attia, and Rhonda Patrick. Every one of these big brains has recently had podcasts discussing the importance of Vo2 Max. Ben Greenfield is another who has spoken at length about its importance.
Therefore, I thought it was time for me to jump on the train. That said, I’ve actually been measuring and managing my Vo2 Max for some time. This all started when I got my Peloton. Matt Wilpers told me during a Power Zone Max class we were going to be working on our Vo2 Max.
“What’s this Vo2 Max of which you speak, Matt Wilpers?”
Then I noticed on my Apple Watch there was a measurement for my Vo2 Max. Check yours. It’s there if you wear an Apple Watch. Word of warning, it’s not all that accurate. As with most wearables, it’s just an estimate based on your age, gender, weight, and activities along with your HRV and heart rate.
I started paying attention, and this became my #1 measurement for determining whether or not I was in “good” or “great” shape. Look, we’re all adults here. We don’t fool with silly metrics like how much we bench or squat. That’s silly. We need to be measuring the things that truly indicate our body’s performance ability. There’s no greater one than Vo2 Max.
So how do we improve our Vo2 Max? First, a funny story.
My stepmother goes to physical therapy every week as part of her rehabilitation from a stroke. When she goes, my Dad walks on the treadmill. One day recently, my Dad had a neighbor on the adjacent tread. This said neighbor pissed Mr. Wright off.
While he kept a nice steady walking pace, his neighbor would up their speed to an intensity that could only be described as a full sprint. Mr. Wright was certain this young lady was trying to show him up. When one of the nurses explained this lady was doing interval training, Mr. Wright wasn’t hearing it. He was certain she was trying to show how much harder she was working than him.
Now, I’m not saying this young lady doesn’t make a habit of crushing the spirits of over 70-year-old men in the gym just for grins and giggles, but in this case, I’m going to give her the benefit of the doubt. Most likely, Mr. Wright’s treadmill nemesis was working on her Vo2 Max with one of the best training methods at our disposal—High-Intensity Interval Training or HIIT.
A HIIT workout is anything that calls for short bursts of all-out work followed by a short recovery period—rinse and repeat. It’s highly effective as well as efficient. It’s what has made CrossFit so appealing. It’s a lot of work in a short amount of time.
You’ve most likely heard of one of the most common forms of HIIT—the Tabata workout.
The Tabata workout originated from a study conducted by Japanese scientist Dr. Izumi Tabata and his team in 1996. The study, conducted at the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo, focused on comparing the effects of moderate-intensity exercise with high-intensity interval training.
The specific Tabata protocol involves alternating between 20 seconds of intense exercise and 10 seconds of rest, repeated for a total of four minutes. The original research used this format and found that it produced significant improvements in both aerobic and anaerobic fitness. The Tabata workout has since gained popularity as an efficient and effective form of high-intensity interval training.
For a long time, most people seemed to think this was the only way to truly work Vo2 Max. Then something changed. Well, nothing changed so much as data got noticed.
If I were to ask which athletes have the highest Vo2 Max, what would you say?
Boxer? Water Polo Player? Soccer Player? Curling Pro?
None of these are correct (I’m shocked about Curlers). It turns out the athletes with the highest Vo2 Max are cross-country skiers. Strange, huh? After all, one thing I can all but guarantee is that the young lady taunting Mr. Wright was not a cross-country skier.
This seemed crazy to me and many others upon first learning. In fact, I was just listening to Dr. Rhonda Patrick discuss Vo2 Max with Peter Attia on her podcast. When Peter started explaining to her the benefits of Zone 2 training on Vo2 Max, you could sense her skepticism. Rhonda is a fellow Peloton(er) and likes to use HIIT training as her Vo2 Max training poison.
I first heard Peter do a deep dive on this in an episode of his podcast “The Drive” with guest Dr. Inigo San Millan. Dr. Millan gave what seems to be the perfect prescription for training for Vo2 Max. Much of his research on Zone 2 training was done looking at cross-country skiers.
Okay, so before I go any further, let’s answer the question of what Zone 2 training is. While there are all sorts of ways to truly measure whether or not you are in Zone 2, the easiest is this. When you are in steady-state training (think treadmill, stationary bike) and you are working at a pace that allows you to carry on a conversation but you really don’t want to. You’re just a little breathy. This is Zone 2.
What Dr. Inigo has found is that if we adhere to an 80/20 rule of Z2 to HIIT ratio, we will drastically increase our Vo2 Max health.
So what does this look like from a practical standpoint? Here’s the formula I follow that I took from Dr. Inigo, which has also been adopted by Peter Attia.
Do 3-4 hours of Z2 work per week. Then do one day of intense Zone 5 training.
Zone 5 training—This sucks. This is awful. It’s not fun. I’m not going to sugar coat it. It’s very hard. Here’s how to execute it.
It’s going almost all out but not quite( 80-90%) . Unless you’re using all sorts of cool biometric gadgetry, the best way to figure out if you’re in Zone 5 or not is whether you can go 4-5 minutes at the pace and no longer. By minute 3 you’re seriously considering quitting, but you don’t. If you finish 4-5 minutes and feel you still have some gas in the tank, then push a little harder.
Eventually, you will find the sweet spot or rather bittersweet spot.
The format should be done on a one-for-one basis i.e. 4 minutes on 4 minutes off. Do this cycle 4 times.
WARNING: If you’ve never done this sort of training, do NOT start with 4×4. Work your way up to it. Studies have shown the needle really starts moving at about 3 minutes of steady Zone 5 work. So start slow.
Try to go for 3 minutes as hard as you can hold then 3 minutes easy. Assess how you feel. Try again. Set a goal to cycle through maybe two or three times.
Work your way up to 4 intervals of your Zone 5 on a one to one basis-4 minutes hard, 4 minutes easy, 4 minutes hard, 4 minutes easy. Do 4 of each.
As your Vo2 Max increases so will the Watts and length of your Zone 5 output.
Here’s something to remember. There is no silver bullet. There is no one size fits all, but there is one size fits a whole hell of a lot.
By doing the 4 hours of Z2 and 1 session of Z5 weekly, you’re almost guaranteed to improve your Vo2 Max.
Here comes the punchline for this entire article. Pay attention to your Vo2 Max. Start asking your physician and or trainer how to measure yours and improve it. Even if you never plan to hike a mountain, ride a bike again, or play tennis, you are going to need a robust Vo2 Max to live an active healthy life.
If I could give you some homework, it would be to either go get your Vo2 Max measured by an expert or at least start looking at a wearable to get you some idea of where you are. It’s that important.
I’ll leave you with one of Peter Attia’s best quotes on Vo2 Max. “You can’t cheat on the test.” There is NO WAY to fudge the numbers on your Vo2 Max. It is what it is and it tells a LOT about your overall health.
The next thing at the top of the list is lean body mass and strength. I’ll cover that in the next issue. Keep improving your Vo2 Max always in ALL ways!
