Updated on June 17, 2026 at 02:44 PM
Norwegian triathlete Christian Blumenfelt It sparked another round of VO2 max mania earlier this year when it was reported that I recorded an impressive score of 101.1 ml/min/kgA number so high that it has prompted statements that he may be “the fittest man in the world.”
The reaction was expected. Few scales have captured the imagination of the endurance world so completely VO2 maxwhich is often treated as the ultimate measure of aerobic fitness.
But many experts say that’s giving that number too much credit.
While VO2 max can provide useful information about cardiovascular health and fitness, experts say its importance is often overstated, especially for average athletes.
“It’s basically a function of how well your heart works, how well your lungs work, how well your circulation works, and how well your muscles extract oxygen,” he explains. Dr. Gregory Katza cardiologist at New York University Langone Medical Center. Katz also has a wide reading Sub-newsletter Which presents research findings with the appropriate skepticism that only an evidence-based scientist can bring to the noise of modern medical media.
In short, higher VO2 max readings indicate that more oxygen can be transported to working muscles during intense exercise. As such, VO2 max is used to measure aerobic fitness and cardiovascular endurance. This simple calculation also provides insight into how well your lungs, heart, and muscles work together to transport oxygen to where it’s needed to fuel the overall effort.
Highly trained endurance athletes tend to have higher scores, and higher scores are associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and improved long-term heart and metabolic health – as well as greater endurance, faster recovery and elite athletic potential.
Given this background, it’s no surprise that Blummenfelt’s reading is off the chart — it was apparently recorded during a treadmill-based test and shared via Instagram video – Led to statements that he is “the fittest man in the world.” As one commenter (gokmentoroslu) pointed out, “VO2 max 101?? Bro reached endgame, VO3 unlocked.”
But are these claims justified, and does a very high VO2 max represent the pinnacle of fitness?
No, says Katz. He and other experts argue so VO2 max It is a flawed measurement to begin with and does not necessarily prove whether one athlete’s “drive” is greater than another’s.
What VO2 max really shows
Despite what you may have seen on social media from influencers trying to argue that the metric is necessary to determine triathlon performance, Katz says VO2 max doesn’t add much value for most healthy people of average athletic ability.
“It’s a common test among people who talk about it longevity “Athletic performance is high because it integrates information from multiple systems in the body,” notes Katz. “It’s a good way to see how well everything works together.” But applying that is not quite what many people do Influencers They say.
In fact, this testing protocol is often used to evaluate disease severity in sick or elderly individuals. For example, a person being set for a heart transplant will undergo heart and lung testing that includes VO2 max measurements to determine how sick he is and what priority he should be on the transplant list. A person who is short of breath due to a lung or heart problem may also benefit from a VO2 max test.
VO2 Max test They can be of great value in these settings because there is a direct relationship between higher scores and a lower risk of heart attacks and strokes. “There’s a lot of research that shows a very consistent relationship,” Katz says.
But that’s a very different situation than what a 40-year-old age group triathlete is trying to figure out from the same test. For a healthy adult, VO2 max is not exactly useful.
“The thing that made VO2 max exciting for people is that it’s a great test,” Katz says. “You’re wearing this mask, and you’re being measured in a really precise way. It’s like you have a secret recipe,” he says. But for most of us, generally healthy, non-elite athletes, “the idea that VO2 max adds anything to any part of your life is absolutely crazy. It’s a fantasy.”
However, lay people can understand the simplicity of combining heart, lung and muscle function measurements into a single number. But the usefulness of this number also depends on how you arrived at this number.
Perform appropriate laboratory-based procedure VO2 max test It can be time consuming and expensive. It must be repeated regularly for the data to become actionable, and for most average athletes, this is simply not realistic.
There is also a lot of debate about whether using VO2 max as a marker of athletic potential at elite levels makes sense to begin with. As reported by Alex Hutchinson outside magazine in 2019, “False readings (VO2 max) are fairly common, partly because metabolic testing equipment isn’t really designed for nerds who can consume more than seven liters of oxygen per minute.”
He enters Wearable fitness trackers. But take the information they provide with a grain of salt, Katz says. “Your VO2 max Apple watchor the Oura Ring, or whatever wearable they give you is bullshit. It’s an imaginary number that sometimes correlates to what your actual VO2 max is and sometimes doesn’t. “It’s like ChatGPT – sometimes it’s right, sometimes it’s not.”
He also points out that a VO2 max test is usually performed while walking or running on a treadmill. This means that its results are less applicable to people who focus on swimming, cycling or other sports disciplines.
“If it’s not measured by a test that you’re mechanically proficient in, it’s going to give you an incorrect value for your total oxygen consumption,” Katz says. “So, if you’re training on a bike all the time and then your VO2 max test is done on a treadmill — guess what? It won’t actually reflect your VO2 max because you haven’t trained for that movement.”
(As a competent and endurance swimmer who has not run in years except to catch the bus occasionally, I appreciate this distinction.)
Where to focus instead
Instead of spending money on some fancy lab test that may not give you accurate, context-specific data, choose another element of performance that you want to track and analyze. “It’s best to figure out what scale makes the most sense for the level of racing you want to compete in,” Katz recommends.
The objective measure of choice doesn’t really matter, he says, but if you’re a triathlete, “it might make sense to look at how long it takes you to swim a mile or run a 5K or bike a 40K.”
And be consistent in checking the specific metric you track regularly. One reading gives you a snapshot on a specific day. But the more data you collect over time, the better insight you’ll get into whether you’re making any progress toward your goals.
All that said, Katz adds, “If you want to spend $200 every six months to measure your VO2 max, that’s totally fine. And I never discourage people who have the means to do this test.”
But focusing, for example, on your running time and how it changes over the course of ongoing training may be a more feasible option. “This is a really good alternative to what your VO2 max is, and it’s much easier and cheaper to do.”
Finally, Katz warns that anyone who tries to make you feel like you need this information to achieve your goals probably isn’t worth listening to.
“There’s a lot of rhetoric on social media about this, and (some influencers) are trying to make people feel like there’s forbidden knowledge. Most of them are someone trying to sell you a program or monetize your attention, and I think a lot of people don’t take good advantage of the importance that these things have in what you see on social media.”
Ultimately, VO2 max has some really useful applications in healthcare and wellness, and stories about ever-increasing human limits and records broken by superhuman Scandinavians are always exciting, science-tinged bait-and-switch. But in the end, “it doesn’t really matter that much,” Katz says.
Still determined to boost your VO2 max?
Despite the warnings, if you’re still looking to boost your VO2 max scores, you can do so over time. But be careful: increasing this score requires a lot of hard work. High-intensity interval training that raises your heart rate to between 90% and 100% of maximum is crucial to enhancing your body’s ability to use oxygen more efficiently.
Doing classic 4×4 exercises once or twice a week for 4 to 12 weeks is one way some influencers and trainers recommend to improve your VO2 max. These workouts consist of a warm-up, followed by four 4-minute repetitions at the maximum effort you can maintain throughout the workout. Each of these four high-intensity reps should be immediately followed by an easy 3-minute recovery jog. Cooling down, proper rest and refueling are crucial to giving your body time to recover from the stresses of exercise and improving your fitness over time.
You may see improvements using this protocol, but it is not uncommon for 4×4 enthusiasts to notice that the upward trend decreases as they approach the end of a training cycle. After all, your body is constantly adapting to the training stimuli you feed it; To keep improving, you have to keep upping the ante.
