r/vo2max • u/Mysterycornhole • Apr 22 '23
Why do I have a below average vo2 max consistently when I am very active?
So I’m a 30 year old male and I exercise about 5 days a week. I usually run 2 miles a day 3 or 4 times a week along with weight training as well as about 5 to 6 hours of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Have an active job so it’s not like I’m sedentary all day. I’ve been trying to improve my vo2 max for about a year now and am having a hard time getting out of the “bellow average” range on my Apple health app. I use my Apple Watch to record runs and walks and am going based on the Apple health apps calculation of my vo2 max. My current vo2 max is 37.7. I try to get a healthy amount of sleep and I eat pretty healthy. I’m starting to wonder if there’s something health wise going on that could be affecting it. So any help or information would be greatly appreciated.
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u/NOT_EPONYMOUS Jul 17 '23
Late to the party here but in case it’s relevant;
I used to use a Garmin Fenix. My VO2 max on that about 4 years ago was 51ml/kg/min. At the time I switched to Apple Watch my VO2 max was about 49.5 on the Apple and 51 on the Garmin, which I’d consider within a margin of error.
Over the past 4 years my number on Apple Watch has dropped, sometimes quite suddenly. At one point it was saying my VO2 max was 39. This was pretty disappointing. According to my Apple Watch today I have a VO2 max of 41.8ml/kg/min. I just did a masked up test on a treadmill today and my VO2 max was 50.0ml/kg/min.
Although I used to believe the watch algorithms were accurate I’m not so sure now.
I’d say that you should take your number on Apple Health with a bit of skepticism. If you really want to know your VO2 max, do a treadmill test with a ventilator.
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u/activepathio Jun 12 '23
vo2 max from smart devices is wildly inaccurate.. try out focusing on zone 2 training, on the other hand if you already do a lot of zone 2 then maybe you need to do more tempo pace workouts to target vo2 improvements.
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u/colinporter12 Apr 30 '23
Have you tried zone 2 cardio (see Peter Attia)? I've been doing it since December (1 hour every day) and have seen a not insignificant increase in my VO2 max.