What is a good VO₂max?
It depends on age and sex: in a large US lab registry the median is 48 ml/kg/min for men and 38 for women in their twenties, falling to about 33 and 23 in their fifties.
Median (50th) and 90th percentile VO₂max in ml/kg/min, measured on a treadmill:
| Age | Men, median | Men, 90th | Women, median | Women, 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20–29 | 48.0 | 61.8 | 37.6 | 51.3 |
| 30–39 | 42.4 | 56.5 | 30.2 | 41.4 |
| 40–49 | 37.8 | 52.1 | 26.7 | 38.4 |
| 50–59 | 32.6 | 45.6 | 23.4 | 32.0 |
| 60–69 | 28.2 | 40.3 | 20.0 | 27.0 |
| 70–79 | 24.4 | 36.6 | 18.3 | 23.1 |
These are a broad mix of US adults who came in for a lab test, not athletes, so a regular runner will usually sit well above the median. Watch and calculator estimates can be several points off a lab measurement.
In the Kodama meta-analysis, every 1 MET (3.5 ml/kg/min) higher fitness went with about 13% lower risk of death from any cause.
Run the numbers
Sources
2
- Kaminsky, L.A. et al. (2015). Reference standards for cardiorespiratory fitness measured with cardiopulmonary exercise testing: data from the Fitness Registry and the Importance of Exercise National Database. Mayo Clin Proc 90(11). Percentiles from 7,783 treadmill tests of US adults aged 20 to 79 without cardiovascular disease. The table below is taken from it.
- Kodama, S. et al. (2009). Cardiorespiratory fitness as a quantitative predictor of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular events in healthy men and women: a meta-analysis. JAMA 301(19). Each 1 MET higher fitness: 13% lower all-cause mortality and 15% fewer heart disease events.