VO2 Max

o perform the test, all you need is your weight and age and to walk one mile. Before the walk, warm up with some stretching. After the warm up, walk one mile as fast as possible and note the time it took you. Immediately after finishing the mile, take your pulse. The equation for estimating your VO2/Kg follows: VO2 max (ml/kg/min) = 132.853 - 0.0769 (weight) - 0.3877 (age) + 6.3150 (sex) - 3.2649 (time) - 0.1565 (heart rate) Weight is in pounds. Age is in years. Sex: male = 1, female = 0. Time is expressed in minutes and 100ths. Heart Rate is in beats per minute, taken at the end of the walk. Notice how gender adds a constant 6.3 to the male score.

The supply of oxygen is dictated by how often the heart beats, the volume of blood transported by every beat and the amount of oxygen in that blood.

It is also dependent on how well the tissue or muscle extracts the oxygen (O2).

The idea that the human body cannot survive without oxygen has been known for millennia. However, the notion that oxygen and its delivery and subsequent metabolism by exercising muscles is crucial to prolonged activity is relatively new, having first gained attention in the 1920s with the work of the English physiologist A. V. Hill.

The term "maximal oxygen uptake" was first coined by Hill and Herbst in the1920s.

Marathon runners (N = 20) and ultra-marathoners (N = 23) were tested for VO2max, peak treadmill running velocity, velocity at lactate turnpoint, and VO2 at 16 km/h using an incremental (1 min) treadmill test.

Results. Race times at 10, 21.1, and 42.2 km of the specialist marathoners were faster than those of the ultra-marathoners, however, only the 10 km time differed significantly. Lactate turnpoint occurred at 77.4% of VO2max and at 74.7% of peak treadmill velocity. The average VO2 at 16 km/h was 51.2 ml/kg/min which represented 78.5% of VO2max.

The best laboratory predictors were: (a) peak treadmill running velocity (r = -.89 to -.94); (b) running velocity at lactate turnpoint (r = -.91 to -.93); and (c) fractional use of VO2max at 16 km/h (r = .86 to .90). The predictive value of the lactate turnpoint measure increased as the distance increased.

We were not designed to run (or cycle, swim or skate) for hours each day at 90% VO2 Max, or to spend hours each day in the gym lifting heavy weights.

2 Max measures how efficiently one's body breathes in oxygen, then attaches the oxygen to red blood cells through hemoglobin, then transports the oxygen throughout one's body, said Ayles.  Click here for "Ask the Expert" Training toward a Goal.

"That's why you can taper off (your training) before the race; it's not going to affect your performance," said Ayles.

Genetics, body weight, and endurance often times dictate VO2 Max level.

An athlete's oxygen consumption rises in a linear relationship with exercise intensity

DEENA KASTOR Marathon

VO2 Max): 82.0 ml/kg/min. (One of the highest ever recorded for women; 40 is considered high for an average woman her age.)

SHAWN CRAWFORD TRACK, 200 METERS

But something else happened as a result of all those workouts: blood flowed at a much higher volume to a part of the brain responsible for neurogenesis. Functional M.R.I.’s showed that a portion of each person’s hippocampus received almost twice the blood volume as it did before.

VO2 Max. Serious exercisers may use a VO2 max calculation, which measures the amount of oxygen consumed during intensive, all-out exercise. The most accurate testing method uses computers, but anyone can estimate V02 without instrumentation (with an accuracy of about 95%): After running at top pace for 15 minutes, round off the distance run to the nearest 25 meters. Divide that number by 15. Subtract 133. Multiply the total by 0.172, then add 33.3. Olympic and professional athletes train for VO2 max levels above 80. But for the average person interested in fitness, a VO2 max equaling between 50 and 80 is considered an excellent score for overall fitness.

Mr. Indurain's VO2 max, according to a widespread rumor, was 95 milliliters per kilogram of body weight per minute,

"Lance would be 60 if he was a couch potato and never trained," Dr. Coyle said. "For the average person, their ceiling is Lance's basement."

Mr. Armstrong's VO2 max is 85 milliliters of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute. An average untrained person has a VO2 max of 45 and with training can get it to 60.