Budding Supercentenarians: What is your VO2Max target at age 100?

#1

***Marks comments added below.

I did a treadmill-based VO2max test today. Scored a value of 37.2. Which puts me in the 90th percentile in my age bucket. :partying_face: Assuming the score can be taken at face value.

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A decade hence, I should expect to have lost about 15-20% of what I have got now, assuming I continue a similar level of cardiovascular capacity. And that just gets me to my early 80’s. What’s that number going look like in 20, 30 years?

VO2max and healthspan: What is the minimum value required to still be considered still in a ‘healthspan’ regime, vs. just surviving?

*** Here’s where Attia and Joyner address this question: https://youtu.be/hN12iDSlFEc?t=3405
*** Joyner: 20’s to lower 30’s
*** Attia: 30-31
*** This is what they propose for a person in their 80’s. Now, how are you going to sustain that
*** for another 30-years???

Does VO2max at a high level matter? Yes.. Is average good enough…all the way to age 120? No.

What are your favorite VO2max-increasing pills and potions?

Does Bryan Johnson have the VO2max of an 18yo? (I haven’t looked.)

*** Yes, he does. But then he’s not near the age where a severe drop-off commences.

What cutting-edge start-up has a pill in phase 1 trials, that will increase your VO2max by 50% over baseline in a 26 week period?

***Here’s Joyner’s comments on pills: https://youtu.be/hN12iDSlFEc?t=6883

Just some random musings.

BTW, the basis for the above VO2max table seems a bit odd to me. It’s derived from data collected between 1968 and 2021. And the modal male seems to be like 5’ 8" and 195lbs.
https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(21)00645-5/fulltext

Tacking this on because why not:

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What is your HR_max and VO2MAX values from exercise data?
#2

I love it - well done! How much did it cost you? I’m looking for an exercise physiology lab that will do this for me in the SF Bay Area… will post my info when I do get it done. I want to raise my Vo2max a lot over the coming year.

I’m assuming you’ve gone through this thread: Exercise, VO2 max, and longevity | Mike Joyner, M.D

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#3

Could take EPO, lol.

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#4

Move along, nothing to see here.

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#5

Thats a good price. The lowest cost I see around my area is the local SF state university, but I’m not sure if they are active… I’ve emailed them, and we’ll see if they respond:

https://kin.sfsu.edu/exercise-fitness-testing

Dexafit seems reasonably priced: DexaFit San Carlos

Kaiser may be a reasonable option for people in some areas - here is their lab in Sacramento:

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#6

Of interest? ITPP?

Another thread on here discusses:

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#7

My polar h10 puts me between 56-62 ml/kg/min. Intervals.icu has me around 51 ml/kg/min based on my most recent best efforts but these weren’t max all out efforts so could be the H10 is about right. Polar claims it is. The H10 is around 80 euros and the test is easy to do at home (doesn’t require any exercise)

#8

You can test your VO2 max with 90% accuracy without labs, by doing the Cooper Test. You run on a track for 12 minutes, then measure how far you ran, then refer to the chart.

Kenneth Cooper MD is the author of the book Aerobics.

The Cooper Institute tested tens of thousands of participants and developed fitness performance standards beginning in 1968 that continue to be used today in the military, law enforcement, and pro sports. To see how you measure up, here are 1.5-mile run standards for the Navy Seals and FBI, with age group standards for men and women from the Cooper Institute.

You can also calculate your VO2 max with the equation below:

VO2max = (35.97 x miles) – 11.29
VO2max = (22.35 x kilometers) – 11.29

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#9

Running is tough for me not because I get out of breath but because my knees are so damn stiff. Probably need to do more yoga or something.

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#10

You can calculate VO2 max with a swim test.

How to conduct the test
This test requires the athlete to swim 400m and, following a rest, 50m as fast as possible

  • The athlete warms up for 10 minutes
  • This part of the test requires the athlete to swim 400 metres
  • The athlete gets into the pool
  • The assistant gives the command “GO”, starts the stopwatch, and the athlete commences the test
  • The assistant stops the stopwatch and records the time when the athlete completes the 400m (T2)
  • The athlete has an active 10-minute recovery
  • This part of the test requires the athlete to swim 50 metres
  • The athlete gets into the pool
  • The assistant gives the command “GO” starts the stopwatch, and the athlete commences the test
  • The assistant stops the stopwatch and records the time when the athlete completes the 50m (T1)
    Assessment
    I have been unable to locate any normative data for this test.

Calculation of CSS
CSS = (D2 - D1) ÷ (T2 - T1)
Where D1 = 50, D2 = 400, T1 = time for 50 metres in seconds and T2 = time for 400 metres in seconds

Plug in the values into the calculator on the page.

There are other non-lab tests on the page below:

#11

A reasonably good article on this topic generally:

Zone 2 Endurance Training and Its Relationship With Longevity, Cardiovascular, and Musculoskeletal Health

#12

There are of course several factors that go into VO2_max, so conceivably the test could tell different things to different people. In well trained younger people the metric is mostly determined by body weight and the ability to pump blood, which is (roughly?) the maximum of stroke volume times heart rate. I’m not sure, from my brief scan of the internet, whether this holds for older folks, or even non-athletes in general. In particular in really old people the muscles are both lesser in volume and worse at using oxygen per unit volume, so they could well be capable of delivering more oxygen than their muscles can use.

The usual mitagation is the same either way: lots of exercise, although in already well trained young athletes improvement is, I hear, very slow, if it happens.

#13

Move along, nothing to see here.

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#14

I love that ACSM chart! It puts me in the 95% for my age group (60-69) and even in the 75% of the 20-29 young guys :slight_smile:
Did the test at DexaFit for around $60 in a bundle with RMR and dexa scan.

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#15

This might be navel gazing but I have always felt that creatine was the ONE supplement everyone agreed was beneficial. I came across this meta analysis that claims that “Creatine supplementation has a negative effect on VO2max, regardless of the characteristics of training,” As Peter Attia says VO2 max “is more strongly associated with reduced mortality risk than any other metric we know of" do you think this suggests cutting back?

#16

I can’t read the full article but it’s probably because creatine causes water retention therefore because vo2max is expressed as ml/min/kg the higher the weight the lower the vo2max

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#17

CreatinesupplementationandVO2maxasystematicreviewandmetaanalysis.pdf (3.1 MB)

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#18

Your conjecture is right on. From the article discussion section: "The main findings were that CS is detrimental to VO2max, especially for cycling. CS was also not beneficial on the
maximal aerobic parameters associated with VO2max, the
ventilatory threshold seemed to be improved.

With cyclist - weight is very important for output.

At a glance of the article, I think the reduction of VO2Max doesn’t seem profound. “Since CS is well-known to improve anaerobic performance through **muscle hypertrophy and the higher **
recruitment in fast-twitch muscle fibers (Casey et al. 1996),
changes in skeletal muscle energy metabolism could have
explained our negative findings on VO2max. This hypothesis
is supported by the lack of improvement in muscle oxidative
capacity following CS (Van Loon et al. 2003; Thompson
et al. 1996). The negative effect of CS on VO2max should
be considered, especially in endurance athletes for whom
VO2max is a determining factor of performance.”

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#19

Very interesting.
As a runner, I’m relieved to see that this is only statistically significant for cycling but not running nor rowing.
The effect size is small anyway even for cyclists.

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#20

As a cyclist I wouldn’t worry about the water weight either. A bit of hyperhydration means I have to carry less water/drink less frequently to stay hydrated.

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