How To Improve Your VO2 Max

if you're a runner then there's a chance that you've heard of the term VO2 max now we love it we think it's important to know what it is and it's definitely irregular in a lot of Runners search histories and don't worry if you're not a runner don't worry either because we're going to tell you everything you need to know about it so you can become an expert too simply put 30 Max is the amount of oxygen that your body can utilize per kilogram of body weight per minute now if you're still confused then ultimately we all breathe the same air and we're looking at a measure of how effectively we can use the components of that air for exercise so when we're taking on high intensity sport maybe that could be running then we're trying to transport oxygen that we've taken in from the air through our bodies the muscles and tissues and it's the hemoglobin in our red blood cells that allows us to do that a higher vot Max figure means that we're going to be able to exercise for longer at particular intensity or we might find exercise generally easier so that singular vot Max figure that number ultimately it's one way of measuring your capacity for endurance exercise okay let's head out and explain a little bit more okay so I'm out on a run to tell you ultimately why as Runners I think that you should care about Beauty Max why is it relevant well if anything like me or anyone else at the running Channel team then regardless of your goals then you're a little bit competitive even if that competition is just with yourself because measuring your progress over time can be a really good way to stay motivated so having a single number that allows you to kind of boil your endurance or aerobic fitness down to that one number and track it over the long term could be a really good way of staying motivated so what should your VO2 max be what could it be and how much could you improve it well there's no clear answer but there obviously is a lot of research into averages for the population in fact we'll pop a table up on screen which gives you some examples and they vary by gender and by age as well at the bottom end if you're fairly sedentary and don't do any activity you might find a VO2 max between 27 and 30 for women and 35 and 40 for men at the top end we're talking 70 plus for elite women and maybe even 80 plus for elite men as an example of my va2 Max now age 40 is about 60 62 whereas when I first started out in my career as a professional it was about 68 as a very well trained athlete but I managed to get it up to 80 over the course of four or five years really consistent training so if you can make a really significant impact on your vot Max and overall Fitness just through the right training but surely the one thing that I haven't talked about is clout having a number that objectively measures how fit you are surely that's something you should shout about set it as your profile picture get it in those group chats no don't do that I mean you'll get kicked out those group chats probably a little bit boring and a bit of a show-off but the point I'm making is that theater Max is actually an individual figure that you should use to Benchmark yourself against time as you hopefully see progress bearing in mind of course as you get a little bit older if you have time away from the sport that will dip it's an objective measure for you to see where you're at against where you were previously rather than for you to compare yourself against other people so we're not VO2 Maxes and why we should care about it but how do you actually go about measuring it well ultimately there are two key ways the first of which is the hardest and definitely going to put you through the most pain and trouble in fact if you want to check out what it's like to test your vehicle Max in a lab which is what I'm talking about then head here to see exactly what happened when Sarah and I did just that but if you don't want to end up like this [Music] then other opportunity for you is to use your watch if you have a smart watch now a lot of smart watches will give you a measure of VO2 mats provided that you've done enough specific types of activities on the watch already so that has enough data to make that estimate for you but don't worry you might be thinking how accurate are those smart watches well in fact the video they just talked about where we went to the lab was to find out exactly that and it turned out pretty accurate or certainly accurate enough for you to use them as a measure of your own Fitness so that way it's definitely much easier before I tell you how to go about improving your vot max with some specific examples if you found this video interesting or useful in fact even if you haven't please just be nice and like the video and subscribe to the running Channel too then you'll be in with a chance of winning a brand new Garmin Smartwatch which will help you to measure your V2 max if you don't know what to comment then comment either your VO2 max score if you know it or your favorite types of workouts to go about improving your endurance and if we get to More Than 3 000 likes then one of those smart watches could be yours so how do you actually go about improving your VO2 max well I do lots of running that's the most obvious way and ultimately a very training week is the best way to get fitter so that's throwing in slower long runs threshold runs but if we're looking for the maximum bang for your buck in terms of improving your V2 Max then what we're talking about is interval training and some interval training will have a bigger impact than others ultimately what we're talking about as the most important thing is having a sustained High average heart rate over a period of time so running at effort that is close to so just below just above or right at your VO2 max pace and to find that VO2 max Pace then roughly it's the effort you could run all out at for between 5 and 10 minutes so the more experience Runners that might be they're 2K or two mile Pace but for most Runners it's probably right around their one mile case you're looking to try to strike a balance between how long your hard efforts are and then how long the recoveries are because you need to keep your heart rate high enough so if you're talking about really short efforts of maybe 30 or 60 seconds then actually you're gonna have to keep the recovery really short to make sure your heart rate doesn't drop too much in the recovery it's also important to keep jogging the whole time so even in recoveries you're going to keep moving so think about doing 30 seconds hard 30 seconds easy recovery where you're still moving and because we're aiming to keep our heart rate high for a certain amount of time aiming for between 15 and 20 minutes you're gonna need to do 15 lots of 30 seconds on 30 seconds oh or maybe 10 to 12 lots of 60 seconds on and then somewhere between 30 45 maybe 60 seconds recovery for that one now what I think of as the more traditional VO2 max workouts tend to use intervals between two and three minutes in duration and then have recoveries of a similar duration now we're looking for that overall hard effort of 20 minutes in this case so these sessions are going to be slightly longer overall but you could start if you've never done this before with something like four times two minutes then look to build up to that 20 minute volume so six times three minutes is about 18 minutes eight to ten times two minutes would also be about right but definitely because they're slightly longer Factor these types of workouts into your overall week in terms of your overall mileage you could also choose to take the emphasis away from Pace altogether by doing the same sort of duration of intervals think two minutes but on a tough hill now don't pick too steep a hill because you still need to able to run of that sustained intensity for two minutes you want to make it achievable make sure you jog back down and then repeat I'm just coming to the end of my run here and that's an important point we're talking about sustaining a high heart rate high average heart rate for that 15 to 20 minute duration to have the maximum impact on your VO2 max that doesn't always have to be running in fact something that's equally well suited to that is hit trading so high intensity interval training so it doesn't always have to be running you could throw something else in the mix and we always say that cross training definitely helps with your running anyway so now that you know everything hopefully there is to note about VO2 max you should head here to check this video out all about threshold running which I think could be the missing piece of your running jigsaw to complement all of the stuff we've talked about in this video

Channel: The Running Channel

Views: 182,286

Keywords: How to run, running, running tips, training for beginners, how to start running, running training, training advice, 5k run, 10k run, half marathon, marathon, marathon 2020, couch to 5k, fitness, running challenge, personal best, parkrun, how to run faster, best running videos, VO2 Max, improve your fitness, how to get fitter, aerobic fitness, running further, running science

Id: _WLzdh1raPI

Length: 7min 28sec (448 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 09 2023