Ever dreamt of owning a V12 supercar?

Like a Ferrari 812 Superfast, Lamborghini Aventador, or the Aston Martin DBS...

These beasts are built for one thing:  performance. We're talking engines with over 800 horsepower, 0–60 acceleration in 2-3 seconds, and price tags north of $400,000. These machines are marvels of engineering, precise, powerful, and capable of pushing physics to its limit.

Now imagine you’re handed the keys to one and told: “It’s all yours. Enjoy!”

But there’s a catch… You’re only allowed to drive it in first gear. No redlining. No testing its limits. No pushing that engine to feel what it’s really capable of.

Sounds frustrating, right?

The thing is, you already own a high-performance engine: your body.

And most of us are cruising through life stuck in first gear, never realizing what we’re capable of. That “engine” inside you—your heart, lungs, and muscles—has a real metric for performance: it’s called VO2 max.

VO2 Max might sound like technical exercise jargon, but it’s essentially a measure of how powerful your body’s “oxygen engine” is. In simple terms, it is the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use during intense exercise, measured in milliliters of O2 per kilogram of body weight per minute. The higher this number, the more oxygen your heart and lungs can deliver to your muscles, and the more work your muscles can do.

Just like a dyno test tells you how much power a car can produce at full throttle, or you can tell by how many cylinders it has, VO2 max tells you how much oxygen your body can use when it’s going full tilt.

The higher your VO2 max, the more efficiently your body can produce energy, the more stamina you have, and the longer and healthier you’re likely to live.

Unlike a Ferrari, though, your engine gets better the more you use it. You don’t need $400K. You don’t need pit crews or performance fuel. Just knowledge, consistency, and a little effort.

In this essay we’ll break down not only why VO2 max is so important for longevity, but also how it applies to both athletes and everyday people. Whether you’re 20, 50 or 90, by the end you will know exactly how you can improve this metric to boost your health and lifespan.

How it Works

When you exercise, your lungs pull in oxygen from the air, your heart pumps it through your blood, and your muscles use that oxygen to produce energy (adenosine triphosphate - ATP) for movement. And the more mitochondria you have, the more oxygen you can use to create ATP. Endurance training literally transforms your muscle cells into oxygen-hungry machines, increasing enzymes like citrate synthase and boosting aerobic energy production. Over time, this all leads to a higher VO₂ max—and not just better workouts, but better resilience to aging. If you have a higher VO2 max, it means your body can deliver and utilize more oxygen, letting you sustain harder efforts. There is a lot of oxygen on Planet Earth, so our speed of processing it is the current bottleneck.

You might associate VO2 max testing with intense lab sessions—think treadmills, face masks, and tubes measuring gas exchange. And you'd be right: that’s the gold standard. But devices like the Apple Watch, Garmin, and even WHOOP now offer estimates of your VO2 max without all the wires.

So how exactly do they pull this off?

The key lies in something called submaximal exercise estimation. Your Apple Watch tracks your heart rate and GPS-based movement data—speed, distance, and elevation—when you go on brisk walks or runs. It then uses these inputs to reverse-engineer how much oxygen your body likely used during that activity. This is based on a well-established relationship: the faster you go at a given heart rate, the more aerobically efficient you are. If your heart rate is low while running fast, your body is doing a good job delivering and using oxygen—suggesting a higher VO2 max.

The algorithm itself is based on large population studies and validated estimation formulas (like the Cooper test or heart rate regression models). It won’t be as precise as a clinical test with a gas analyzer. For most people, it gives a reliable baseline—especially when tracked over time. As you can imagine, someone who runs a mile in 4 minutes will have a different (much higher) VO2Max than someone who struggles to do it in 12.

Just like wifi scales or heart rate monitors, these devices have a bit lower precision and accuracy than a lab device, but it is still enough to get a useful datapoint and understand.

If you don’t plan to go to the olympics or compete in professional sports, why care about VO2Max? In day-to-day terms, a high VO2 max might mean being able to climb stairs without getting winded, or keeping up with your energetic kids or grandkids more easily. By contrast, a low VO2 max might leave you huffing and puffing from tasks that should be easy, or even just not being able to do them.

Don’t worry if your number isn’t athlete-level. What matters most is improving it relative to where you started. Even small improvements make a difference and start to reverse the toll of aging, as we’ll see…

Why VO2 Max Matters for Longevity and Health

VO2 max isn’t just about bragging rights at the gym or going faster than your running buddies. It’s deeply connected to your health, lifespan and basic functionality. In fact, doctors and scientists consider it one of the best indicators of overall fitness and longevity. A high VO2 max correlates with better cardiovascular health and a lower risk of diseases like heart disease, stroke, and even dementia. In short, boosting this number isn’t just about running faster — it might help you live longer and healthier.

How strong is this link? Pretty strong! Research shows VO2 max is an excellent predictor of mortality (life expectancy). A 2018 scientific review named VO2 max “the strongest predictor of life expectancy,” even compared to traditional risk factors. In fact, having a low VO2 max poses a similar risk to your life as smoking cigarettes.

That’s a jaw-dropping insight: being out of shape (low VO2 max) can be as dangerous as a pack-a-day habit to your cardiovascular health. On the flip side, improving VO2 max provides huge benefits. For every single-point increase in VO2 Max (measured in ml/kg/min), your risk of dying from any cause drops by about 10%. For this reason, we believe tracking and improving VO2max is one of the clearest paths to safe longevity. After fat loss and body composition, improving your VO2Max is one of the clearest longevity interventions and next steps in Gyroscope.

To make it more relatable, consider this analogy:

VO2 max is like your body’s savings account for good health.

The more “oxygen currency” you can spend, the better your buffer against health threats. Even moving from a low fitness level to just an average level can have a massive impact. Data have shown that bringing your VO2 max from the lowest 25% of the population to just below average (25th–50th percentile) is associated with a 50% reduction in all-cause mortality risk.

In other words, you don’t have to become a marathon runner. Even moderate improvements in fitness can literally cut your health risks in half.

VO2 Max As We Age

We all know aging can slow us down. VO2 max naturally declines as we get older too – if we don’t stay active, it’s roughly by about 5%–10% per decade after our mid-20s. By age 60 or 70, an inactive person’s VO2 max might be nearly half of what it was in their 20s.

This decline has real-life implications. In senior years, VO2 max can become the difference between living independently or needing assistance.Research suggests that when VO2 max falls below roughly 18 ml/kg/min in men (or 15 ml/kg/min in women), a person may lose the physical capacity for independent living around age 80+. Think about tasks like carrying groceries, climbing stairs, or even showering – they all require a baseline of aerobic fitness. If fitness drops too low, those tasks become extremely challenging.

The good news is exercise can dramatically slow this decline. Aging is not just about the number on the calendar, or genetics. A regular aerobic exercise routine can slow down or even reverse a lot of age-related VO2 max loss, effectively making your “fitness age” much younger than your actual age. One review found that consistent exercise could make an 80-year-old’s aerobic fitness more like that of a 70-year-old, prolonging independent living by a decade or more.

So for older adults (say 60s, 70s, 80s), maintaining VO2 max isn’t about running marathons or gym performance. It’s about keeping the ability to enjoy life and do everyday activities. Even if you start later in life, improvements are possible. Studies on seniors show that with training, older adults can significantly improve VO2 max and functional fitness – sometimes by 10–15% or more – which might be the difference between easily getting out of a chair versus struggling.

It’s never too late to invest in your fitness bank account. But those who start early and invest more will have the best experience, and glad they did later.

VO2 Max for Athletes vs. The Rest Of Us

When we hear about VO2 max, it’s often in the context of elite athletes. Top endurance athletes are famed for sky-high VO2 max values – some in the 70s, 80s, even 90+ ml/kg/min in extreme cases. These are like the sports cars of the human world, built for speed and stamina.

For example, cross-country skiers and pro cyclists often record VO2 max scores that would make the rest of us dizzy. This gives them an incredible capacity to sustain fast paces for long durations. However, VO2 max isn’t everything even for athletes. It sets an upper limit, but other factors like technique, lactate threshold, and muscle efficiency matter too for final performance.

A famous example is British marathoner Paula Radcliffe: her VO2 max was about 70 ml/kg/min years before she broke the world record, and it stayed around that level when she set the record – she improved her performance through other training aspects without a big VO2 max change. However, someone with a low VO2Max (like 20 or 30) would struggle to do that, so there is a base amount needed for certain tasks.

So, what about the rest of us “normal people”?

VO2 max matters at every fitness level, not just for Olympians. If you’re in your 20s to 60s and moderately active, you might have a VO2 max anywhere from the 30s up to 50s (ml/kg/min) depending on age, sex, and training. If you’ve rarely exercised, your number could be on the lower side (maybe even in the 20s for some middle-aged folks). But if you jog or cycle regularly, you might be in the 40s or higher.

Even a middle-aged person who’s never exercised can improve their VO2 max with consistent training, and in doing so significantly boost their health outlook. In fact, people who improve from “poor” to “fair” fitness categories reap some of the biggest health gains, as mentioned earlier.

For adults under 60, VO2 max is like a report card for your heart and lungs. A higher score means your daily activities (carrying groceries, playing with your kids, hiking with friends) will feel easier.

You’ll likely have more stamina and recover faster after exertion. Many who start exercising notice these life improvements even before the number on a watch changes. It’s the feeling when you realize you can now jog that extra mile or you don’t dread the four flights of stairs to your apartment. That’s VO2 max in action in everyday life. And importantly, building a high VO2 max in mid-life creates a “reserve” for older age – a cushion against the natural decline. It’s like investing in your fitness early so you have more to “withdraw” later without falling into frailty.

This chart summarizes a few different benchmarks you can use to evaluate your current state of VO2 max fitness, and what the primary bottlenecks may be:

How to Improve Your VO2 Max (and live longer)

By now, the benefits of a higher VO2 max – from easier daily living to lower disease risk – should be clear. So how can you improve it? The formula is simple and empowering: challenge your heart and lungs regularly.

Here are some approachable tips to boost your VO2 max and overall fitness:

1. Do Regular Cardio: Engage in aerobic exercise that gets your heart pumping – the more vigorous, the better (within your limits). Aim for a mix of activities you enjoy: brisk walking, jogging, cycling, swimming, dancing – anything that raises your heart rate. Consistency is key. Health experts recommend targeting 150 to 300 minutes of moderate aerobic activity per week (like brisk walking) or 75 minutes of vigorous activity (like running) — or a combination.

Start at your own pace: if you’re new to exercise, even a 15-minute walk daily can be a great beginning. Remember, something is always better than nothing – even light activity can nudge your VO2 max up a bit if you’ve been sedentary. You can track your walking, running and other motion with Gyroscope Places to see how much time you are spending each day, and find ways to increase it in your daily lifestyle.

2. Incorporate Interval Training: Once you have a base of regular movement, try adding some High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) or faster spurts to push your limits. HIIT means you alternate short bursts of intense effort with periods of rest or easy movement. For example, you might cycle hard for 1-2 minutes, then pedal easy for 2 minutes, and repeat. These workouts train your body to utilize more oxygen. Research shows HIIT can improve VO2 maxeven in well-trained individuals, and often more efficiently than just steady moderate exercise. One classic study found that a 4-minute interval routine (known as the Tabata protocol) done a few times a week increased VO2 max by 15% in just 6 weeks!

You don’t need to torture yourself every workout, but sprinkling in intervals a couple of times a week can supercharge your fitness gains.

3. Mix It Up & Keep Pushing: Our bodies are smart – they adapt to routine. To keep improving VO2 max, variety and gradual progression help. If you always jog 2 miles at the same pace, try going a bit faster, or a bit farther, or switch to biking occasionally. If you usually use the elliptical, try a dance class or a swim. New challenges force your heart, lungs, and muscles to adapt and grow stronger.

Over time, as your workouts get a bit harder, your VO2 max rises correspondingly. It’s like leveling up in a game – you need to increase the difficulty to see progress. Just remember to do this gradually and listen to your body to avoid injury or burnout.

4. Mind Your Weight and Lifestyle: VO2 max is measured relative to body weight, so carrying a lot of excess weight can lower the score. Losing weight (if needed) can thus improve your relative VO2 max – though the goal is always fat loss while maintaining muscle, like we teach in our fat loss course and protocol, since muscle is what uses the oxygen. Additionally, it may seem obvious, but avoid smoking (it hampers your lungs, thus VO2 max) and manage health issues like high blood pressure or cholesterol with your doctor’s help, as these can affect exercise capacity. Think of it as clearing obstacles off the track so your VO2 max can improve unimpeded.

Lastly, make it fun and sustainable. Find activities you enjoy and a routine that fits your life. Maybe you join a weekly hiking group, or you set a goal to run a 5K charity race, or you simply relish your daily brisk walk listening to your favorite podcast.

Keep track of your progress in Gyroscope – many people find it motivating to see their estimated VO2 max slowly tick up over months (just don’t obsess on the day-to-day fluctuations). Using your Health Score is a great way to have a zoomed out view on things too. We find that generally a high VO2 max correlates with a Health Score over 80, which makes perfect sense, as VO2 max is a vital metric of longevity and Health Score is a representation of lifespan.

And celebrate improvements: when your watch or treadmill test shows your VO2 max went from, say, thirty to thirty-five, that’s a huge win! Even if that is “half” of an elite athlete, it is going in the right direction.

It’s not just a number: it represents a stronger heart, healthier lungs, and a more energetic you.

Your Longevity

In the grand scheme of health metrics, VO2 max stands out as a particularly meaningful number. It boils down the complex idea of “fitness” into a single value that reflects how well your body can fuel itself with oxygen. We’ve seen that this number isn’t just trivia for athletes; it’s your business too.

Whether you’re a 20-year-old student or a 70-year-old grandparent, tracking and investing in your VO2 max even a little can pay off with big health dividends. More energy, lower disease risk, and yes, quite possibly a longer life. It’s one of the best gauges of longevity scientists have found. No one ever woke up and wished they had lower VO2Max, or more difficulty walking.

Usually it goes down constantly as we get older, but the good news is that unlike your genes or your age... it can be improved with effort, intelligence and consistency!

The take-home message is empowering: no matter where you’re starting from, you can take some steps (literally!) to improve your VO2 max. The earlier the better, but even if you are in critical state, the body is capable of repairing.

Every walk, jog, or bike ride is not just some calories burned, but an investment in your VO2Max. Over time those investments compound into a stronger heart and lungs. You’ll feel it when carrying groceries is easier, when you play with the kids longer, or when your doctor nods approvingly at your next check-up.

And perhaps the best part is, this journey can be enjoyable: finding physical activities you love brings joy and stress relief in the moment too, not just future health benefits.

So instead of optimizing for the very most efficient protocol, try to prioritize picking activities you really like also and that you’ll enjoy doing 1000 times in the net few years. For example, you could do dancing instead of running, if you don’t like running but like dancing.

So next time you hear “VO2 max” or see it in your Apple Watch metrics, remember it’s not just a metric reserved for marathoners with oxygen masks strapped to their faces. It’s a measure of your actual functional lifespan and a preview of what your life might look like in 10 years.

Use Gyroscope to keep an eye on it, improve it step by step, and you’ll likely gain more healthy years and quality of life in return.