Increase VO2MAX?

OP, I agree with the comments (from some very knowledgeable folks) that more volume and intensity would be needed to move the needle on VO2 Max.

With that said, I find that VO2 max is not a particularly useful data point for me. Is there a specific reason for pursuing VO2 max improvement as a goal?

I'll look to others to respond as well. My answer to you is "It depends". If your primary goal is to increase cardio fitness and drive an uptick in VO2 max, then more cardio work is needed. If you are after the benefits of resistance training, such as increased strength and muscle tone, that is also great. With that said, increasing strength training by 15 min per day will not lead to the uptick in VO2 max that you mentioned in your first post.

As @MikePfirrman noted, in order to really improve VO2 max, you'll need both volume and intensity. His comment about knowing your max HR and then building a safe structured plan that includes doing some higher intensity work is rock solid advice.

tsazani wrote: »

Great answers. Thanks. I'll also be 64 in November.

My diet is spot on. I'm working on sleeping longer and hopefully better.

I like exercising 4 days per week. I'd like to keep it like that.

I do "the big three" cardio, resistance, and flexibility in every session..

I was thinking of doubling the volumn of resistance training. From 15 min to 30 min per day. My exercise time would go from 45 min to 60 min.

You say I should do 180 min more cardio per week instead? That's 45 min more per day. 45 min to 90 min of exercise per day.

My resistance training is hard. It looks like HIIT on my Polar Flow App. My cardio and yoga are easy. They are done in the blue "fat burning zone".

So...45 min more easy cardio and yoga per day?

Or...15 min more hard resistance training per day?

Or...some volumn increase in both?

VO2 max is (one) measure of CV fitness - you are looking in the wrong place to improve cardio fitness by doing more strength training.
That your strength training gives a spiky HR trace is pretty irrelevant - HR rises during strength training for reasons other than oxygen uptake (the fitness aspect you say you want to improve), it's not an aerobic exercise. Also if your VO2 estimate is coming from a fitness wearable then your estimate is being influenced by that trace and it really shouldn't be.

It's your cardio that drives improvements in VO2 max. Both volume and especially intensity would need to go up massively. You could certainly stick to 4 days a week but what you do in those 4 days would have to completely change.
e.g. As a keen cyclist I'm averaging about 8.5 hrs/week but hit my fitness peak in June doing 13 hrs /week including many rides with very intense efforts. Still didn't get my Garmin estimated VO2 max out of excellent into elite zone.

There is a huge disconnect in your goal and your training:
Short easy cardio - not going to do much for your goal.
Strength training - not going to do much for your goal.
If you look up training plans / sessions designed to boost VO2 max you will mostly see repeated very intense intervals. But in our 60's it's wise to build up to that and I advise building your duration and endurance first rather than focus on what sounds not a particularly useful aspect of fitness to you.
If you reveal what form your cardio takes people could point you towards training resources or plans.

My questions about whether your numbers are estimates or measurements is pretty important to validate your numbers but I'd agree with @MikePfirrman that a maximal effort test would be unwise with your current routine. It took me days to recover from my VO2 max and max HR test in a sports science lab as you push to the point of collapse. You can get a better than the often hopelessly inaccurate age related max HR fairly easily though.

The treadmills at our gym give a VO2max measurement. There is a specific routine they go through to get you to particular heart rates and they measure how fast and at what incline you go before you get there. I used them with a chest strap HR monitor. I'm sure it's not the most accurate, but it is at least consistent and with a chest strap monitor is probably the best I am going to get.

Anyway....

Back in November 2016 I thought my CV fitness was OK. Did my first test. Got only 28 which was below average for my age then (48)

By March 2017 I had got it up to 38. By April 2018 I had got it up to 46 which is roughly where it now tends to sit.

My main CV activity is boxing. To increase the reading I did pretty intense CV four times a week. Mostly boxing, sometimes tabata intervals on the rowing machine. I was working up to being able to do a full set of 12 boxing rounds on the heavy bag (3 minutes work, 1 minute rest - so an exercise time of 47 minutes just on CV). By the time I had got to the 38 reading in March 2017 I think I was getting about 8 rounds before I got so red, sweaty and exhausted that I had to stop. By the 46 reading I was able to do the full 12. Heart rate was peaking to 90% + in most rounds. (I use a Myzone HR monitor which adjusts your max HR upwards if you can maintain red zone for too long, so again it's probably the most accurate I'm going to get without going over the top)

I have to agree with the others that easy cardio is not the way to go to increase VO2max, but you need to build up to the sort of intensity needed.

tsazani wrote: »

Great answers. Thanks. I'll also be 64 in November.

My diet is spot on. I'm working on sleeping longer and hopefully better.

I like exercising 4 days per week. I'd like to keep it like that.

I do "the big three" cardio, resistance, and flexibility in every session..

I was thinking of doubling the volumn of resistance training. From 15 min to 30 min per day. My exercise time would go from 45 min to 60 min.

You say I should do 180 min more cardio per week instead? That's 45 min more per day. 45 min to 90 min of exercise per day.

My resistance training is hard. It looks like HIIT on my Polar Flow App. My cardio and yoga are easy. They are done in the blue "fat burning zone".

So...45 min more easy cardio and yoga per day?

Or...15 min more hard resistance training per day?

Or...some volumn increase in both?

You have to choose what's important to you. You can keep a moderate exercise load, or you can have "elite" fitness. You can't have both.

Yoga and strength training will not affect your VO2max much, if at all. These are healthy activities, but they don't stress your oxygen transport system. Just like running won't improve your bench press but been still be healthy.

tsazani wrote: »

Great answers. Thanks. I'll also be 64 in November.

My diet is spot on. I'm working on sleeping longer and hopefully better.

I like exercising 4 days per week. I'd like to keep it like that.

I do "the big three" cardio, resistance, and flexibility in every session..

I was thinking of doubling the volumn of resistance training. From 15 min to 30 min per day. My exercise time would go from 45 min to 60 min.

You say I should do 180 min more cardio per week instead? That's 45 min more per day. 45 min to 90 min of exercise per day.

My resistance training is hard. It looks like HIIT on my Polar Flow App. My cardio and yoga are easy. They are done in the blue "fat burning zone".

So...45 min more easy cardio and yoga per day?

Or...15 min more hard resistance training per day?

Or...some volumn increase in both?

What you're doing is great for overall health, but it's not going to lead to an elite level of fitness. Even at my peak I'd say my cardiovascular fitness was very good, but I wouldn't say it was elite and I was cycling a combination of long steady state work and interval work training for endurance rides and races and I was putting in a good 8 hours or so per week just cycling. That didn't include my resistance training or yoga which do next to nothing for cardiovascular fitness though they are very good for you and yoga in particular is great for recovery.

If you want a high level of cardiovascular fitness, you're going to have to do a lot more cardio and throw in some higher intensity work.

Right now I'm not doing all that work I used to do and my fitness level is nowhere close to where it was a couple years ago, but I'm content to be maintaining my overall health and just enjoying being recreationally active...but I'd have to bump up my work and actually train again to get back to where I was in 2014-2018.

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tsazani wrote: »

Thanks all.

So far my Polar watch tells me my exercise is "productive".

When tells me I'm "maintaining" or "detraining" I'm going to add 10 min of rowing machine right after yoga.

Should I do this at 70% MHR? Or go for higher?

It sounds like your Polar watch probably licenses Firstbeat technology, because my Garmin watch does the same thing. 🙂 Firstbeat is good stuff. 🙂 🙂 Do you have the training load and load focus features?

tsazani wrote: »

My current exercise program is 45 min 4 days per week. Done at around 70% MHR.

10 min warm up cardio (walking)
15 min resistance
10 min yoga
10 min recovery cardio (swimming).

My VO2Max is 34 which is good for my age. I'd like to get it to 41 which is elite for my age.

Is my exercise program enough to get me there?

Basically no cardio in there, so very unlikely. If you are looking to improve your cardio performance, you'll want to add some quality cardio sessions (rather than tossing a bit in during your weight training). One possible way to go about it would be to look up race training plans online for a structured program (be it running, cycling, swimming, or whatever). (These will typically have a combination of long lower intensity stuff and shorter higher intensity stuff).

NorthCascades wrote: »

Djproulx wrote: »

OP, I agree with the comments (from some very knowledgeable folks) that more volume and intensity would be needed to move the needle on VO2 Max.

With that said, I find that VO2 max is not a particularly useful data point for me. Is there a specific reason for pursuing VO2 max improvement as a goal?

This sentiment was repeated a few times in this thread by a few people. Because it's pretty much a consensus. I thought some context might be useful. 🙂

OP is working at 70% MHR. Some people lift 90% of their one-rep max. On the bike, I do intervals at X% of my threshold power. Nobody really goes out and does exercise at whatever % of their VO2max. People also don't say "I'd like to do another 20 minutes but my VO2 is only N so I shouldn't." Your VO2max just isn't relevant to anything you're going to do in the moment while you exercise. It is a truth universally acknowledged.

Your VO2max turns out to be the best predictor of whether you'll be around next year. It's literally better to be on dialysis than to have a very low VO2. 😳 Because, again, it's heart and lung function, if that's good you aren't dying of CV disease or a lot of other things. It's normalized by weight which is obviously implicated in many health conditions. High VO2max means good health is many ways. So it's a great goal! 😁

Since this is a weight loss site for a lot of people, I'll say again that losing weight is a really good lever to pull. Beyond that, I think more volume at less intensity is going to have more of a lasting effect than something like HIIT.

This thread has generated some interesting discussion. @NorthCascades, I'm glad you made these points, since my comments may have led some to believe there is no value in understanding VO2 max. I realize that my perspective might be limited because my goals are to build endurance and get faster in races, so VO2 max improvements happen as a by product of my efforts to meet different goals.

That's probably not what most people care about. Your point about VO2 as a gauge for health is useful to keep in mind.

tsazani wrote: »

Thanks all.

So far my Polar watch tells me my exercise is "productive".

When tells me I'm "maintaining" or "detraining" I'm going to add 10 min of rowing machine right after yoga.

Should I do this at 70% MHR? Or go for higher?

I've no idea why you limit yourself to 70% of your estimated MHR but I'd be tempted to add in some harder efforts as a contrast to the rest of your routine.
There are health benefits to older athletes from high intensity work which would be complimentary to the rest of your exercise routine. "Fast After 50" by Joe Friel is a facinating book. (Even though I wasn't fast before 50!)

Concept2 has a VO2 max estimator based on your 2000m rowing time which might be an interesting comparison to your watch.
https://www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/training/calculators/vo2max-calculator

I had doubts about the actual number (think I hit a best of 53?) but declining time for the distance is a genuine performance improvement indicator.

sijomial wrote: »

tsazani wrote: »

Thanks all.

So far my Polar watch tells me my exercise is "productive".

When tells me I'm "maintaining" or "detraining" I'm going to add 10 min of rowing machine right after yoga.

Should I do this at 70% MHR? Or go for higher?

I've no idea why you limit yourself to 70% of your estimated MHR but I'd be tempted to add in some harder efforts as a contrast to the rest of your routine.
There are health benefits to older athletes from high intensity work which would be complimentary to the rest of your exercise routine. "Fast After 50" by Joe Friel is a facinating book. (Even though I wasn't fast before 50!)

Concept2 has a VO2 max estimator based on your 2000m rowing time which might be an interesting comparison to your watch.
https://www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/training/calculators/vo2max-calculator

I had doubts about the actual number (think I hit a best of 53?) but declining time for the distance is a genuine performance improvement indicator.

+1 for Friel's "Fast After 50" as a fascinating read.

Friel lays out the factors facing us as we age(depressing, I know, lol) then gives strategies to mitigate the impacts on performance. The real life examples and proven strategies are inspiring.

sijomial wrote: »

tsazani wrote: »

Thanks all.

So far my Polar watch tells me my exercise is "productive".

When tells me I'm "maintaining" or "detraining" I'm going to add 10 min of rowing machine right after yoga.

Should I do this at 70% MHR? Or go for higher?

I've no idea why you limit yourself to 70% of your estimated MHR but I'd be tempted to add in some harder efforts as a contrast to the rest of your routine.
There are health benefits to older athletes from high intensity work which would be complimentary to the rest of your exercise routine. "Fast After 50" by Joe Friel is a facinating book. (Even though I wasn't fast before 50!)

Concept2 has a VO2 max estimator based on your 2000m rowing time which might be an interesting comparison to your watch.
https://www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/training/calculators/vo2max-calculator

I had doubts about the actual number (think I hit a best of 53?) but declining time for the distance is a genuine performance improvement indicator.

I've used that C2 calculator to estimate my VO2 Max times. But they have the Untrained and Trained backward. If you're "untrained", yours should be higher, not lower, because your times are lower due to efficiency. At my peak, my VO2 Max was around 50, which at that time, for a 53 year old, was impressive. It's not close to that now (around mid to low 40s. But I'm what would be "highly trained", so mine should now go down if you pick that option, but it goes up instead.