No. 04 · Aerobic
VO2 Max Estimator
Estimate your VO2 max, your body's top rate of oxygen use, from a simple run, a walk or your heart rate. Field tests give an estimate, not a lab measurement, so each result comes with a range.
Units
Sex
Needed for the walk test.
Test
After a warm-up, run as far as you can in exactly 12 minutes on a flat track, at the fastest pace you can keep up for the whole time. It's a maximal effort.
Enter the distance you covered in 12 minutes.
Why it matters
Cardiorespiratory fitness is one of the strongest predictors of long-term health. In a meta-analysis of 33 studies, each 1 MET higher (3.5 mL/kg/min) was linked to 13% lower all-cause mortality and 15% fewer cardiovascular events (Kodama et al., 2009). In over 120,000 adults, the least fit had about five times the mortality risk of the fittest, with no upper limit to the benefit seen (Mandsager et al., 2018).
The American Heart Association recommends treating fitness as a clinical vital sign (Ross et al., 2016). The good news: it responds to training at any age, especially for people starting from a low level.
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Disclaimer
This tool provides estimates for general educational purposes only and is not medical or professional advice. It is intended for adults aged 18 and over. The run test is a maximal effort and the walk test is a hard one: do not attempt them without medical clearance if you have, or may have, a heart condition, high blood pressure or another medical condition, or if you are new to exercise. Warm up first. Stop and seek help if you feel chest pain, dizziness, unusual breathlessness or palpitations. Medicines that affect heart rate, such as beta blockers, make the walk and heart rate methods invalid.
Privacy: All calculations are performed locally in your browser. No personal data is collected, transmitted, or stored.