Can I test my VO2 max without a lab?
Three ways, and they are not equally good. The easiest needs no exercise at all: your age, sex, BMI, resting pulse and how much you move in a normal week go into an equation. It is fine for placing you in a band and poor at detecting change, because none of those inputs move much when fitness does.
Better is a timed mile walked as briskly as you can manage, with your pulse taken the second you stop. Better still, if you already run, is how far you cover in twelve flat minutes. Both actually stress the system the number describes, which is why they beat arithmetic.
All three land within about five points of a laboratory result, which is close enough to tell you your band and not close enough to argue over a decimal.
Source: Uth et al, European Journal of Applied Physiology 2004
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Answered by the AskDoc Medical Team · Medically reviewed under our Medical Director, MBBS · How we review
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