cardio · fitness testing

VO2 max by age.

VO2 max is the best single measure of aerobic fitness, and whether a given number is good depends entirely on your age and sex. This page puts the full norms in two charts, one for men and one for women, so you can find where your number lands, see what counts as good for your bracket, and know how to measure and improve it.

By Markus Evers · Updated August 2026

the short answer

A good VO2 max is one that falls in the "good" band or higher for your age and sex, which broadly means you are fitter than the average person of your age. Because the whole scale slides down over time, the bands do the work: a 40-year-old man is in the good range at about 39 to 44 ml/kg/min and reaches excellent in the mid-40s, while a 40-year-old woman is in the good range at about 29 to 33. Find your bracket in the charts below to see your own verdict.

This article is general fitness information, not medical advice. VO2 max is a fitness marker, not a diagnosis. Maximal-effort tests are hard efforts, so anyone with a heart condition, chest pain, dizziness on exertion, or other health concerns should be cleared by a doctor before testing or hard interval training.

the chart

VO2 max chart by age and sex.

All figures are in millilitres of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute (ml/kg/min), the standard unit VO2 max is reported in. Find your age row, then read across to the column your number falls in. These are the same bands our VO2 max calculator scores against, so a number you look up here matches the category it gives you there.

VO2 max norms for men (ml/kg/min).

Age	Very poor	Poor	Fair	Good	Excellent	Superior
20-29	below 33.0	33.0 to 36.4	36.5 to 42.4	42.5 to 46.4	46.5 to 52.4	52.5 and above
30-39	below 31.5	31.5 to 35.4	35.5 to 40.9	41.0 to 44.9	45.0 to 49.4	49.5 and above
40-49	below 30.2	30.2 to 33.5	33.6 to 38.9	39.0 to 43.7	43.8 to 48.0	48.1 and above
50-59	below 26.1	26.1 to 30.9	31.0 to 35.7	35.8 to 40.9	41.0 to 45.3	45.4 and above
60+	below 20.5	20.5 to 26.0	26.1 to 32.2	32.3 to 36.4	36.5 to 44.2	44.3 and above

VO2 max norms for women (ml/kg/min).

Age	Very poor	Poor	Fair	Good	Excellent	Superior
20-29	below 23.6	23.6 to 28.9	29.0 to 32.9	33.0 to 36.9	37.0 to 41.0	41.1 and above
30-39	below 22.8	22.8 to 26.9	27.0 to 31.4	31.5 to 35.6	35.7 to 40.0	40.1 and above
40-49	below 21.0	21.0 to 24.4	24.5 to 28.9	29.0 to 32.8	32.9 to 36.9	37.0 and above
50-59	below 20.2	20.2 to 22.7	22.8 to 26.9	27.0 to 31.4	31.5 to 35.7	35.8 and above
60+	below 17.5	17.5 to 20.1	20.2 to 24.4	24.5 to 30.2	30.3 to 31.4	31.5 and above

how to read these norms

These are widely used fitness norms in the Cooper Institute style, built from large groups tested in labs and on field tests. Two honest caveats matter. First, norms vary between datasets, so a different source may shift a boundary by a point or two; read the band you are in, not the exact decimal. Second, populations that get tested tend to be fitter than the general public, so the "average" here can sit a little above a true cross-section of everyone.

The tables group everyone 60 and over into a single "60+" row, which is how the standard field-test norm charts are published. Fitness keeps declining past that point, so expect an active 75-year-old to sit lower within a band than an active 62-year-old. To drop your own number straight onto the right band, use the VO2 max calculator.

is yours good?

What counts as a good VO2 max.

The useful line to draw is the "good" band. Landing there or higher for your age and sex means you are fitter than the typical person your age, sitting above the mid-pack "fair" range that most untrained people fall into. You do not need to reach "superior" for your number to be a genuinely strong result. Where you draw a personal target is up to you, but "good and above" is the honest threshold for calling a VO2 max good rather than average.

A few worked examples, straight from the charts above. A man in his 20s needs about 42.5 or higher to reach the good band; by his 40s that threshold has dropped to 39, and by his 60s to about 32. A woman in her 20s reaches good at about 33 and above; in her 40s at about 29; in her 60s at about 25. The same raw number tells a completely different story at different ages, which is exactly why a single "good VO2 max" figure does not exist and any chart worth reading sorts by age and sex first.

One more thing the charts cannot show you: your own trend. The most motivating comparison is not against a stranger in a table but against your own number a few months ago, measured the same way. A steady climb, or even holding your band as you get older, is a better sign that your training is working than where you happen to land against the population today.

measuring it

How to find your VO2 max.

The gold standard is a laboratory test: you exercise to exhaustion on a treadmill or bike wearing a mask that measures the oxygen you breathe in and the carbon dioxide you breathe out. It is accurate, but it needs specialist equipment and costs money, which is why most people never do one. Everything else is an estimate, and two kinds are within easy reach.

The first is your wearable. A modern running watch infers VO2 max from your heart rate and pace and shows a number that updates as you train. It is convenient and free once you own the device, but the absolute figure can be off by several points, so it is best read as a trend line rather than a precise score. The second is a field test: run as far as you can in a fixed time or as fast as you can over a fixed distance, then convert the result with a formula. The VO2 max calculator does that conversion from a Cooper 12-minute run, a 1.5-mile run, or even a resting-heart-rate estimate, and drops the result onto the age-and-sex band for you.

Whichever method you use, the rule that keeps it honest is consistency. Test the same way each time, on the same course or the same device worn the same way, and compare like with like. A field-test estimate can sit a few ml/kg/min from a lab value, but the change between two identical tests is reliable, and the change is what tells you whether your training is moving the needle.

why it matters

Why VO2 max is worth tracking.

VO2 max is the size of your aerobic engine: the ceiling on how much oxygen your body can take in, move, and use during hard effort. Because almost everything in endurance depends on getting oxygen to working muscles, it is treated as the single best measure of aerobic fitness. A bigger number generally means you can work harder for longer before you hit your limit, which shows up in everything from a race pace to how a flight of stairs feels.

It also carries a measured health signal. The cardiorespiratory fitness that VO2 max reflects is associated in large population studies with better long-term health outcomes. It is worth being careful with that claim: it describes an association across big groups, not a guarantee for any one person, and VO2 max is a fitness marker rather than a medical test. It says nothing on its own about your strength, your body composition, or any specific condition. Build it and track it as one meaningful signal, not as a verdict on your health.

If you want the fuller picture of what the number is and what drives it, our guide to what VO2 max is covers the mechanics, the role of genetics, and how lab tests compare with watch estimates.

the age curve

What happens to VO2 max as you age.

VO2 max tends to peak in the 20s and drift downward from there, on the order of roughly 10 percent per decade in adults who are not training to hold it. You can see the same slope inside the charts above: the threshold for the good band in men falls from about 42.5 in the 20s to 39 in the 40s and near 32 by the 60s, and the women's bands drop on a similar curve. That decline is normal, and it is a large part of why the norms are sorted by age at all.

The encouraging half of the story is that VO2 max stays trainable at every age. Regular aerobic training slows the decline substantially, and an older adult who starts from an untrained base can still make real gains, often the biggest ones early on. The realistic goal later in life is usually to blunt the natural drop and hold a strong number for longer rather than to keep setting personal bests, and that alone is worth a great deal for how you feel and move.

moving the number

How to improve your VO2 max.

The reliable recipe pairs a large base of easy aerobic work with a small dose of harder intervals. Most of your weekly volume should be easy, conversational effort, what is often called zone 2. That easy base builds the underlying machinery a high VO2 max relies on, and it is sustainable week after week. It is tempting to make every session feel productive by making it hard, but the easy work is exactly what lets the hard work do its job.

On top of that base, one or two interval sessions a week are the most direct stimulus for raising the number: harder efforts near the top of what you can hold, with easy recovery between them. A little goes a long way. Progress gradually, change one variable at a time, and protect recovery, because hard sessions stacked without rest raise your injury and burnout risk faster than they raise your fitness.

How much easy versus hard to run, and which interval style suits you, is its own decision. Our look at zone 2 cardio covers why the easy base carries most of the volume, and HIIT vs LISS weighs the trade-offs between short, sharp efforts and longer steady ones. To keep easy days easy and hard days hard, a heart rate zone calculator gives you the target ranges to train inside.

common questions

Frequently asked questions about VO2 max by age.

What is a good VO2 max for my age?

A good VO2 max is one that lands in the "good" band or higher on a norm table for your age and sex, which broadly means you are fitter than the average person of your age. As a concrete guide from widely used field-test norms: a man in his 40s is in the good band at about 39 to 44 ml/kg/min, with the mid-40s and up counting as excellent; a woman in her 40s is in the good band at about 29 to 33. Every bracket slides down with age, so the number that is merely average at 25 can be very good at 55.

What is the average VO2 max by age?

Average sits around the middle "fair" band, and it falls with each decade. On the same norm tables, a typical untrained man is roughly in the low-to-mid 40s in his 20s, the high 30s in his 40s, and the low 30s in his 60s; a typical untrained woman is roughly in the mid 30s in her 20s, the mid-to-high 20s in her 40s, and the low-to-mid 20s in her 60s. These are population averages from tested groups, so treat them as a ballpark rather than a fixed target.

Can you improve VO2 max after 50 or 60?

Yes. VO2 max declines with age, but it stays trainable at any age, and older adults respond to the same training that works for younger ones. A mix of easy aerobic volume and a small dose of higher-intensity intervals raises it, and someone starting from an untrained base often sees the largest early gains regardless of age. The realistic goal after 50 is usually to slow or offset the natural decline and hold onto a strong number for longer, which on its own is a meaningful result.

How accurate is the VO2 max on my smartwatch?

Treat it as an estimate, not a lab result. A watch infers VO2 max from your heart rate and pace using a built-in model, and the absolute number can be off by several ml/kg/min depending on the device, the fit, and the conditions. Where a wearable is genuinely useful is the trend: if you always wear the same device the same way, the direction it moves over weeks and months is far more trustworthy than any single reading. Use it to track change, not to chase an exact figure.

What is an elite VO2 max?

Trained endurance athletes commonly test in the 60s and 70s ml/kg/min, well above the "superior" band on general-population charts. The very highest values ever recorded, in elite cross-country skiers, cyclists and rowers, reach into the 80s and low 90s. Those numbers reflect years of training on top of favourable genetics, so they are a benchmark for the sport rather than a realistic target for a general fitness goal.

Does a higher VO2 max mean I will live longer?

VO2 max reflects cardiorespiratory fitness, which is associated in large population studies with better long-term health outcomes. That is an association across groups, though, not a guarantee for any one person, and VO2 max is a fitness marker rather than a medical diagnosis. It is a useful thing to build and track, but a single number says nothing on its own about strength, body composition, or any specific health condition, so treat it as one signal among several.

This article is general fitness information, not medical advice. The norms shown are population reference bands that vary between datasets, and VO2 max is a fitness marker, not a diagnosis. Maximal-effort testing and hard interval training are vigorous efforts, so anyone with a health condition or symptoms on exertion should be cleared by a doctor first.

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