VO2Max

1. Cardiorespiratory fitness is measured by testing something called your maximal oxygen uptake. 
2. That's the rate that your body can take up oxygen from the air and get it to your muscle cells. 
3. There, the cell powerhouses known as mitochondria use the oxygen to convert the energy stored in sugars and fats into muscle motion. 
4. The shorthand for maximal oxygen uptake is V02 max. 
5. VO2 max is measured by assessing the oxygen content in the air that you breathe in and comparing it to the oxygen that's left in the air that you exhale. 
6. Many health professionals believe cardiorespiratory fitness should be the fifth vital sign, something that's routinely measured in the doctor's office along with body temperature, pulse rate, breathing rate, and blood pressure. 
7. Do you know why the VO2 max score tells scientists and physicians so much about your overall health? 
8. Why does the VO2 Max Score tell scientists so much about your overall health? Because it provides information about the health of your heart and information about the health of your blood vessels. It provides information about the health of airways and lungs. It provides information about the health of your muscle tissue and mitochondria.
9. The reason for that is because so many different parts of human anatomy play a role in your VO2 max, your heart and your blood vessels, your airways in lungs, your muscle tissue, specifically the mitochondria, those powerhouses in your muscle cells. 
10. If you have a good VO2 max score, that's a good indication that pretty much every aspect of your cardiovascular and respiratory systems must be functioning well. 
11. Conversely, a poor VO2 max score can tell doctors and scientists that you are on your way towards experiencing health issues, such as chronic diseases, cardiovascular disease, and Type 2 diabetes. 
12. Use the online calculator worldfitnesslevel.org to use things like your height, weight, and activity level to estimate your VO2 max score. 
13. If you're serious about your fitness consider conducting a real VO2 max assessment at a university physiology department or any good medical clinic. If that's not available there's another way to assess your VO2 It's called the Rockport Walk Test. 
14. A handy way to estimate VO2 max would just three numbers; weight, the shortest time to walk a mile, and heart rate once you're done. 
15. Here's what you do. Step 1. How long it takes you to walk a mile as fast as you can. On a 400 meter track, one mile amounts to about four complete laps. Next, take your pulse as soon as you're done walking a mile. If you don't have a heart rate monitor, simply count the beats at your wrist while timing a minute with a watch or a phone. Step 3, plug the numbers into the appropriate points in the following equation.
16. females: VO2 = 139.168 - (0.388 x age) - (0.077 x weight in lb.) - (3.265 x walk time in minutes) - (0.156 x heart rate).
17. males: add 6.318 to the equation for females above.