VO2 fitness levels

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CharlotteAnneUK
CharlotteAnneUK Posts: 186 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
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Should I worry too much about my steadily declining VO2 levels?svo2h8ltikrd.jpg

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  • Djproulx
    Djproulx Posts: 3,084 Member
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    Looking at the chart, my first guess would be that you were doing more cardio work during the summer than you are now and your VO2 trend reflects that. Why are you worried? Do you have a race in the near future that is causing concern?
  • CharlotteAnneUK
    CharlotteAnneUK Posts: 186 Member
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    The fact I was in the 40's and seeing a steady decline made me wonder if I should worry. I did suffer in Dec so took a step back from what I was doing but otherwise was pretty active all year, 29 weekend sportive (running or cycling) events in total.
  • Djproulx
    Djproulx Posts: 3,084 Member
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    Gotcha. And your chart seems to reflect your active season, July-Nov.

    VO2 is a cool stat, but its nothing I focus on to any degree. I find plenty of other data points to obsess about! :)
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,583 Member
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    That looks very much like a VO2 Max estimate from a fitness tracker, probably Garmin device/Garmin Connect or similar. (I have a Garmin.)

    From my reading about it, the accuracy is perhaps 95%, so your changes aren't far outside that range. Further, as I understand it, the estimating accuracy depends on the accuracy of your HRmax value. Have you used a tested HRmax, or is an age estimate in play? Those can be pretty far off, for some people (mine is).

    Certainly VO2 Max can increase or decrease with changes in training, but the accuracy issues have always made me take the Garmin's estimate with a grain of salt.

    For example, https://sites.udel.edu/coe-engex/2019/03/16/how-accurate-is-your-garmins-vo2max-estimate/

    If I really cared about knowing mine, I'd look for lab testing (easy for me to say, living in a university town ;) ).
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    Remembering it's an estimate rather than a VO2 max measurement (done in a gym with your breath being analysed) it puts it IMHO into the realm of interesting data but not empirical evidence. Also VO2 max (estimated or measured) is just part of your overall fitness.

    You can also manipulate the numbers to a degree by the style of training you do. When I'm forced indoors to cycle my apparent VO2 max will increase in far too short a timescale to be believable but a part of that is just that my Garmin is seeing longer periods of sustained high intensity which I can't do outdoors (traffic lights, downhills etc....). You could try the same if you're curious - a 20min FTP test perhaps?

    Overall looking at my 12 month graph it follows my overall fitness level reasonably well to a degree, high in July/August with my highest cycling volume months, decline afterwards due to injury, pick up again late Autumn as I'm recovering from injury but that recovery is somewhat exaggerated by my different indoor training style. My FTP scores don't really back up that I'm matching my summer peak fitness.

    Big bonus of the Garmin estimate is that it's free and doesn't hurt - unlike a real VO2 max test in a lab. :smiley:

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