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Body Composition · Marker 01

VO₂ max · Maximal Oxygen Uptake

VO₂ max is the most oxygen your body can use during hard exercise. It's the single best measure of cardiovascular fitness.

Educational, never diagnosticReviewed Apr 12, 2026

Common reference range

45–65 mL/kg/min

Worth watching
Below 30 mL/kg/min
Population median
34 mL/kg/min
Units
mL/kg/min

Your record always keeps the range printed on the report the result came from, which can differ from the range above.

Why it matters

What VO₂ max tells you.

It predicts how long and how well you live more powerfully than almost any other number. Moving from low to average roughly halves your mortality risk.

Cardiorespiratory fitness, measured as VO₂ max, predicts all-cause mortality more powerfully than smoking, hypertension, or type 2 diabetes. Moving from the bottom quartile to above-average roughly halves mortality risk.

There is no other single intervention available to a clinician with that effect size.

What the record reads

The direction, not one number.

Whether your VO₂ max climbs across training cycles, and holds across decades.

VO₂ max · mL/kg/min · six results

Illustrative series

Once you file two results, the record compares them to each other rather than to a population average, and names the report each value came from.

What can influence it

The things that move VO₂ max.

In rough order of effect, and read alongside your own history rather than on their own.

  1. 01

    Zone 2 endurance volume

    The base of the pyramid. 3+ hours per week.

  2. 02

    VO₂ max intervals (4×4)

    The single most efficient intervention for raising the ceiling.

  3. 03

    Body composition

    Lean mass-relative VO₂ improves with fat loss alone.

  4. 04

    Hemoglobin

    Oxygen-carrying capacity is rate-limiting at the top of the curve.

Daily things that show up here

  • Three or more hours of easy aerobic work per week
  • One weekly hard interval session (4×4)
  • Strength train to preserve lean mass
  • Re-test every six months

In your record

What happens when a VO₂ max result arrives.

The same four steps for every result, whether you upload a report or type a value in by hand.

  1. 01

    Filed to its date

    The value is stored against the day it was drawn, with the report it came from kept alongside it.

  2. 02

    Named and normalized

    Maximal Oxygen Uptake is recognised as one measure, so the same marker from two labs joins one series.

  3. 03

    Read in plain language

    You see what it measures, whether it sits in the printed range, and what usually moves it.

  4. 04

    Shared only if you say so

    A clinician sees this result when you grant scoped, expiring access, and the view is logged.

This page is educational. It does not diagnose, and it does not replace a conversation with a clinician who can see your history.

Where to go next

  • Start with one report

    Upload a single lab report and VO₂ max is filed to its date, named and read back in plain language.

    Create my free record

  • Find someone to read it with

    The directory opens filtered to clinicians who work with body composition markers.

    Verified clinicians

  • Read the evidence

    The reading list opens searched for VO₂ max, with every study linked back to its source.

    Studies on VO₂ max

Further reading

Longer pieces on this marker.

References

Where this comes from.

  1. Mandsager K, et al. Association of Cardiorespiratory Fitness With Long-term Mortality. JAMA Netw Open. 2018;1(6):e183605. DOI

Reviewed by Dr. Aaron Chen, MD · Cardiology · Last reviewed Apr 12, 2026