Why I'm obsessed with VO2 Max

VO2 max is strongly correlated with lifespan. I have been listening to Peter Attia's book Outlive, in which he describes the correlation between VO2 max and lifespan. According to my apple watch, my VO2 max was 37 up until this last week which is below average. Even though I am in relatively good health, and I have run 3 marathons in the past my score is bad. Even more surprising to me, after figuring out how to get an updated estimate of my VO2 max on my Apple Watch, I now get an lower estimate of 32.7. This revelation has prompted my journey to start training my VO2 max.

Estimating VO2 max on the Apple Watch

In order to get a VO2 max estimate on the Apple watch you need to do a 20+ minute run or walk at a steady pace. I did a total run of 25 mins, in order to ensure I had a 20 min block of steady movement. This serves to establish my baseline in order to track my progress as I make changes to my diet and behavior. I think the most important part of improvement is getting helpful and timely feedback which the Apple Watch conveniently provides. It provides both motivation, as well as a self correcting mechanism to troubleshoot my training.

My strategy for improving VO2 max

In order to make a healthy lifestyle sustainable, I find that it helps me to start with the motivation. I love playing sports, in particular basketball, so most of my cardio recently has consisted of going to the park by house and shooting for 30-60 mins. I have enough stress in my life outside of my workouts, I don't want to dread going to the gym or getting through a boring weight lifting session. I need my workout to be fun and something I look forward to in order to maintain consistency. I plan to start tracking these workout sessions on my watch and targeting various heart rate zones. I want to get a mixture of longer sessions at a lower zone, like zone 2 for example, as well as more intense shorter sessions getting into zone 4 or 5. I also signed up for a basketball league near my house at the Bear Branch Rec Center. I have already noticed massive improvements in my stamina since I have started my basketball workouts a couple of months ago.

Another area of focus for me, is getting enough quality sleep. My sleep has been abismal lately and it goes without saying that is a crucial factor to long term health.