- [Dan] A high VO2 max has long been linked
with elite athletic performance.
So to give you a few cycling examples,
Greg LeMond recorded one of 92 and a half.
Chris Froome's is apparently just under 85.
Whilst his young Colombian teammate,
Egan Bernal, the super climbing talent,
apparently has one just over 90.
- [Sai] Wow.
- Now to put that in context,
the average male has a VO2 max between 40 and 45;
the average female between 30 and 35.
Now, can you improve it?
Yes you can. Should you improve it?
Yeah, you should probably try, so we're gonna tell you how.
(upbeat music)
- Now before we tell you,
we should probably explain exactly what it is.
So VO2 Max is a measure of how much oxygen
your body is able to consume doing maximal effort.
And it's measured in millilitres per kilogramme
of body weight per minute.
- Your VO2 Max though,
is not necessarily linked to your lung capacity
and I, unfortunately, am a prime example of this.
So my lung capacity, Si,
is not far off eight litres.
- [Si] Wow!
- [Dan] I mean they are huge.
- Yeah, I'd never noticed but you really do have a big pair.
- I do, yeah.
Unfortunately, though, the one time my VO2 Max was recorded
it was only 69 which is not bad,
it's just very average for a pro.
- (chuckles) Well the reason there is probably
that discrepancy is that VO2 Max doesn't measure
the oxygen that comes in to your lungs,
it actually measures how much oxygen your body
is then able to utilise,
and so that's probably why Dan
wasn't quite as efficient as Greg LeMond.
- No, it was fortunate I did that test actually,
otherwise I would never have known.
- Good point, you'd just spend your life wondering, yeah.
- Anyway, if you would like to measure it yourself,
you're going to need something called a gas analyzer.
These are probably not something
you're gonna have around your house.
Mostly they are found in sports laboratories,
but increasingly, there are mobile gas analyzers
such as the VO2 Master which we couldn't help but spot,
could we, a couple of years ago on the roads of Mallorca.
- [Si] No, it took an eagle eye there
didn't it to see that.
Now, the reason why your VO2 Max is so important
is that oxygen is vital in helping your body
turn fuel into energy so therefore,
the more oxygen that you can actually get in,
the more efficiently you can turn fuel into energy.
So therefore the longer and harder you can exercise for.
And that's probably the reason why some people
try and artificially boost their VO2 Max,
by using ill-gotten methods.
- I've got some good news, Si.
- Yeah?
- You don't need to dope to increase your VO2 Max.
- Well that's a relief.
- I've also got some bad news.
- What's that?
- To increase it naturally,
it's really gonna hurt quite a lot.
- That's not bad news mate, no pain no gain.
Coming up, we've got three sessions
that will boost your VO2 Max.
- Hold on.
(upbeat music)
- The first session is one that
you may well have seen before here on GCN. Micro Intervals.
They are a great way of increasing your VO2 Max.
For all of these sessions, it is important that you
get in a good warm-up to begin with,
because they are quite intense.
So at least 20 to 30 minutes of steady riding.
After which, on this one,
you're going to be doing 40 20's.
- Which means 40 seconds hard,
followed by 20 seconds easy.
Now when we say hard, we mean about 120 percent of your FTP
so for non-power meter users,
that is about the effort you can sustain for five minutes.
And then, the 20 seconds as you can see,
is just keeping your legs ticking over.
And then, the reason for that 20 seconds easy,
is cause we aren't doing five minutes,
we're doing it for 10 minutes.
So you repeat 40 20s for ten minutes.
And then, we're gonna be aiming for two to three
of these blocks in each session
with 10 minutes of gentle riding in between.
Perfect for the indoor trainer,
or perfect for long, steady climbs.
(upbeat music)
- Our second session is a little bit simpler,
but no less painful.
We're doing four minutes, almost at max.
So power metre users,
that means again about 120 percent of your FTP.
Either way, when you get to the end
of your first four minutes, you should feel like you have
a little bit left in the tank, but not very much.
- [Dan] Within a single session, you want to aim
for around 20 minutes of total work at this intensity.
So four intervals is okay, five is absolutely bang-on,
and hats off to you if you manage six,
because that is exceptional for this session.
Make sure you get in a full recovery
around four minutes between each one,
or until you're ready to start the next one,
and then a cool down to finish.
(upbeat music)
- Our last session is probably just about the least painful.
The intervals are the longest, at 10 minutes a pop,
however it's only the first two minutes of each one
that are really intense,
are you that 120 percent of FTP again.
Straight after that though, you settle into eight minutes,
bang-on, your functional threshold power.
- [Dan] Again, without a power metre,
this is the sort of intensity you can hold for five minutes.
But then, it's followed by eight minutes
at the sort of effort that you could hold for one hour.
Although, be warned, it won't feel like that kind of effort
because you've just done two minutes flipping hard.
Now have 10 minutes of very easy riding in between,
and then repeat the session again.
Just two of these intervals is pretty good going,
but some of you may be able to manage three.
How much you are able to increase your VO2 Max
through these sessions will depend
on your current fitness levels,
how much training you have done in the past,
but also genetics.
It's unlikely you're going to reach the kind of levels
of Greg LeMond, unless you're some kind of genetic mutant,
but it is worth working on nonetheless,
because there are studies out there that have shown
some people have trained and increased their VO2 Max
by 100 percent, they've doubled it!
- Yeah, others meanwhile, can't improve it at all.
But nevertheless, it is definitely worth trying.
And we should also stress as well actually,
your VO2 Max is not the be-all and end-all
of being a super fast cyclist, not by a long shot.
There are many other things that are important,
and that you should train as well,
so these VO2 Max sessions should be part of
a balanced and varied training plan.
- And don't forget, within that
well-rounded training programme to incorporate rest.
Rest is really important if you want to make improvements.
- That's right. With that, you're basically that
and also your eight litre lung capacity then,
there's no wonder the Cervélo TestTeam
absolutely snapped you up is it?
- Yeah I've got it right. I still am in fact.
Right, well that's the end of this video.
If you've enjoyed it, please give it
a thumbs up just down below
and if you would like to learn with a new power meter,
how to test your FTP you can find that right below us.
(bleep)
- How much you're able to increase your (mumbles) oh my god.
- Coffee's going colder by the minute.
- Ready?
- Sorry are you (bleep)?
- And within that training plan you should also incorpor...
- (laughing) Sorry.
(bleep)
- As part of a well-rounded training (laughs)...