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Having a high level of cardiovascular fitness is one of the key markers for both health and performance.
On the performance side of the equation your VO2 max is a metric for the potential for performance and refers to the maximum rate at which your muscles can extract oxygen from your blood and put it to metabolic use to generate energy. Your VO2 max is often used as an indicator of overall cardiorespiratory fitness and can serve as a metric for tracking progress.
Peter Attia uses it as one of his primary markers for longevity. Having an elite VO2 max for your age leads to a 5x reduction in all cause mortality compared to low levels. When looking at VO2 max in relation to all-cause mortality, we see a very clear trend. Simply bringing 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 you go from ‘low’ to ‘above average’ (50th to 75th percentile) the risk reduction is closer to 70%.
When accompanied with blood lactate we can accurately determine our training zones for specific cardiovascular training and adaptations we are after. Spending long periods of time in zone 2 can lead to improvements in your mitochondrial health and metabolic flexibility.
If you can’t do a VO2 max test to determine your exact zone 2. You can use HR 180bpm-your age, or use the talk test - work at an intensity you could reasonably hold a conversation.
Stay tuned for more videos designed to help you optimise your health and performance.
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