- [Mark] Now we talk about a lot of different metrics
in sport such as heart rate, pace, calories,
cadence, and so on.
But one that always turns the heads is VO2 max.
- Yeah, now you've all likely heard the term VO2 max
and with advances in technology these days
is becoming far easier and accessible
to be able to measure it yourself.
In fact, this very watch here
apparently can tell me my VO2 number.
- Which is great, but actually what is VO2 max
and why is it thought to be so important?
Well, today with the help of the Sports Science Lab
at the University of Bath
and our channel partner Polar,
we're going to be answering just that
and one of us actually doing a VO2 max test.
- Now, before we flip a coin here, Mark,
let's have a little bit of background
about what a VO2 max is.
Now, a person's VO2 max
is also known as their maximal oxygen uptake.
And, is a measurement of the maximum amount
of oxygen a person can utilize during intense exercise.
Now, the measurements of this are
milliliters of oxygen used in a minute
per kilogram of body weight.
- Right, well, since oxygen is critical
in fueling our muscles to perform,
the higher your VO2 max, the better,
the fitter you are in theory.
And this means the higher you can get your VO2 max,
the more oxygen your body can deliver to your muscles
enabling you to perform better or faster.
And by knowing your VO2 max,
we can then accurately create our training zones
and train more smartly.
So, to give you a little bit of perspective
of what we're aspiring to,
Greg Lauren, the ex pro cyclist, had a VO2 max of 92.5.
Kilian Jornet, the epic ultra runner adventurer,
has a VO2 max of 92.
And it said that Paula Radcliffe,
the previous women's world marathon record holder,
had a VO2 max of 75.
- Okay, well that's all very well,
but to give a little bit of context here,
it is said the the average person,
male, should I say,
has a VO2 max somewhere between 40 and 45.
And the equivalent for female
is somewhere between 30 and 35.
- Yeah, and that being said,
by having a high VO2 max doesn't necessarily mean
that you will perform well and go win races
and beat those with a lower VO2 max.
Actually, a lot more components are in play,
such as your physiology, your psychology,
but obviously having a VO2 max and being fitter
is important, will help, but more crucially,
knowing your own VO2 max, tracking that
and seeing improvements in that, is what we're after.
So, with all that, we should really look
at how you find out your VO2 max.
- Yeah, and there are a couple ways that you can do this.
But the first one that we're going to concentrate on
is by going into a sports lab
and measuring it that way.
- Yeah and it's time to flip the coin, Fraser.
Heads or tails?
- I'll go tails.
- Ready?
(suspenseful music)
Heads!
- Oh, it's heads.
And I'm guessing you don't want to do it.
- Not really mate, no.
- All right, okay.
Pull my socks up, get ready for test.
(soothing music)
- All right, so, behind me,
Fraser has just started his VO2 max test.
I've done a number of these over the years
and I can tell you, they are not pleasant.
So, I'm kind of pleased I'm not on the treadmill today.
You will notice though that Fraser's got a mask on his face.
That's staying connected to a rather fancy bit of kit here.
This is a gas analyzing machine.
This is measuring the volume of oxygen
that he's inhaling and the amount of air
that he is exhaling.
And typically, during a VO2 max test,
the athlete will perform some form of ramp test
where the intensity gradually increases
until the athlete either fails and has to stop,
or their oxygen consumption plateaus.
So yeah, like I said, this is a pretty tough test.
What happens during the plateau during the test,
is basically the athlete goes from aerobic metabolism
to anaerobic metabolism.
Meaning that, they are no longer using oxygen
to fuel the breakdown of carbohydrates,
amino acids, fats, and so on.
Because there is simply no oxygen to do so.
So yeah, we are doing this in a lab,
which also means that we can take blood samples
which is really handy, so we can get lactate levels
and we're going to get that all important VO2 max for Fraser.
Good luck, Fraser!
(upbeat music)
Well, Fraser, valiant effort in there.
That was, impressive.
- Yeah, that's one way of putting it, Mark.
I've only just stopped sweating now,
about an hour down the road almost.
I mean, yeah, it was only 11 minutes,
so just under 11 minutes of running,
but, it was a tough 11 minutes
and that's the whole point.
The numbers in particular were starting
at 11 kilometers an hour
and then every minute increasing up
about a kilometer an hour,
so that got me to 20.5 kilometers an hour
at my failure point.
And then the crucial numbers at that point
were 198 as a max heart rate, which doesn't surprise me.
- That's high.
- Used to, no, yeah my heart rate always went quite high.
And then the whole point in the test was the VO2
and now it comes in at 67.3.
- [Mark] Which is also very good by most people's standards.
Maybe not yourself, given what you used to have,
- Yeah, it seems--
- but, you're not practicing.
- No, I know I'm not.
I forget that.
It seems quite low, but either way,
if that's what it is now, and--
- And also, we were able to take bloods in this.
You got peak lactate of 7.6,
which again is good. - Milibles.
Yeah.
- Yeah.
- Seems like a reasonable number for working hard.
- So a lot of interesting stuff there.
But what if I told you, Fraser,
I also got my VO2 max once you were on the treadmill
and I just sat in a chair.
- Yeah, not entirely happy about this.
How did you do that?
- Well, on a number of devices out there
you can do a fitness test.
So on our Polar Vantage V,
they have a fitness test function.
Now, devices and brands differ.
Some brands and devices require you
to do a little bit of activity.
This one in particular actually just needs you
to take your resting heart rate, heart rate variability,
and a few other metrics like your height, weight, etc.
And it will workout your VO2 max.
So I did that.
And I know what you're probably thinking out there.
How on earth can that be accurate?
Well, we're going to put this to the test here.
'Cause I thought, you've now got a very accurate VO2 max
from the lab.
- Sure do, yeah.
- So here's a heart rate,
and let's do the fitness test.
- Okay, well, it'll be interesting to compare.
(upbeat music)
So I have just finished doing my VO2 max test
on the watch here.
And, actually, I'm surprised at the number
this has given me.
This has given me 69.0, which compared to my 67.3
from the very accurate lab test I've just done this morning
is very, very close indeed.
- Yeah, I'm absolutely amazed by that.
That's really impressive.
Now, obviously this isn't quite as detailed as a lab test,
but it gives you a really good ballpark figure
and hopefully that changes as your fitness changes.
- Yeah, I mean there's pros
and cons to everything of course.
And with the lab in particular,
you know that it's going to be in a very controlled
environment, you're going to have extremely accurate results,
very detailed results as well,
and you're also going to get some more detail in there
with things like the efficiency you're running at,
heart rate values obviously,
and your lactate is coming out there,
and so on and so forth.
- Yeah, I guess though on the flip side,
the down side of a lab test is, well firstly you need access
to a lab which for some people, just isn't possible.
- Yeah.
- Well now they are becoming increasingly more available.
Then you need to find availability within that lab,
be able to book in.
That's going to cost you and it's hard work.
- Yeah, where as with this fitness test
on the watch, it's free to use once you've paid
for the watch in the first place
and you can keep doing
that whenever you want going forwards.
It's also very easy and instantaneous information
to get from the watch as well.
- Yeah so just keep doing it over and over again.
But then as I mentioned already,
obviously it's not as detailed
and maybe as accurate as a fully fledged lab test,
but it's open to anyone, as and when they want to use it.
- Yeah, so I guess now Mark,
we have to decide what do we actually go
and do with this VO2 max information?
- Well and go compare everyone else, obviously.
- Yeah, true, actually.
I was thinking maybe more in terms
of what we could do with our training.
- Oh, yeah, yeah.
Well, obviously from this you then will
be able to calculate your training zone.
So theoretically, using your VO2 max
is probably the most accurate way
of calculating those training zones.
So those percentages of your VO2 max
for your training zones are on the screen right now,
so make sure to take a screen shot of that.
And the idea being if you go ahead
and train to those training zones,
you're really like, bang on the money
and should really see an improvement in your fitness
and hopefully your performance.
So that is what VO2 max is,
how you can find out your VO2 max
and what you do with it.
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- Yeah, now hopefully you have enjoyed this video
because I've put in quite a lot of effort,
- You sure did.
- To get the number I did.
But, if you want to see some other videos,
then one that we have made recently
is a swimmer versus a runner.
And you can see that here.
- Yeah, and if you'd like to see how
to run to heart rate zones,
you can see that by clicking just down here.