VO2 Max Calculator
With distance run in 12 minutes 2400 m, body weight 75 kg, vo2 max comes to 42.4 ml/kg/min — vo2 max. It is reached in 6 steps, the last of which is 1 * 42.367539 + 0 * 48.45, and each one is printed on the page with its numbers filled in. The formula is the one published by Cooper, not an approximation fitted to it.
VO2 max from a Cooper 12-minute run or from resting and maximum heart rate, with what each method can and cannot see.
Formula and sources checked · How we check
Method Cooper 12-minute run, Distance run in 12 minutes 2400 m, Body weight 75 kg
42.4 ml/kg/min
VO2 max for the example below. Editing a field recomputes the calculator below; this figure holds the answer the page was loaded with.
It is written into the HTML rather than drawn by a script, so a search engine reading this page without running JavaScript still finds an answer.
- VO2 max from the Cooper test
(2400 - 504.9) / 44.7342.368 ml/kg/min- VO2 max from the heart rate ratio
15.3 * (190 / 60)48.45 ml/kg/min- VO2 max
1 * 42.367539 + 0 * 48.4542.368 ml/kg/min- In litres of oxygen a minute
(42.367539 * 75) / 10003.178 L/min- In METs
42.367539 / 3.512.105 METs- Pace held during a Cooper test
720 / (2400 / 1000)0:05:00 s/km
Worked example
2,400 m in twelve minutes is a VO2 max of about 42.4 ml/kg/min — 12.1 METs, or 3.18 litres of oxygen a minute at 75 kg. That pace is 5:00 per kilometre held for the full twelve minutes, which is what makes the test hard to do honestly: run it as a time trial or the number is fiction.
How to work it out yourself
- 1.Run as far as you can in twelve minutes on a track, on a day you are rested.
- 2.Subtract 504.9 from the distance in metres and divide by 44.73.
- 3.Or, without running: divide maximum heart rate by resting heart rate and multiply by 15.3.
- 4.Divide by 3.5 for METs, the unit exercise prescriptions are written in.
The formula
- VO2 max from the Cooper test
(2400 - 504.9) / 44.73 - VO2 max from the heart rate ratio
15.3 * (190 / 60) - VO2 max
1 * 42.367539 + 0 * 48.45 - In litres of oxygen a minute
(42.367539 * 75) / 1000 - In METs
42.367539 / 3.5 - Pace held during a Cooper test
720 / (2400 / 1000)
Source: Cooper — A means of assessing maximal oxygen intake, JAMA 1968, Uth et al. — Estimation of VO2max from the ratio between HRmax and HRrest, Eur J Appl Physiol 2004
Questions people actually ask
- What is a good VO2 max?
- It depends on age and sex more than on anything else. As rough anchors for men in their thirties: under 35 ml/kg/min is poor, 42–46 is average, above 55 is excellent. Elite endurance athletes reach 70–85. Compare against your own age band, not against a headline number.
- How accurate is the Cooper test?
- Within roughly 10–15% of a laboratory measurement, when the run is genuinely maximal. Its errors are mostly not physiological: pacing badly, running on a windy day, or not running hard enough. A treadmill test with a gas mask measures oxygen directly; this infers it from a distance.
- Can I estimate VO2 max without exercising?
- The heart rate ratio method does: VO2 max ≈ 15.3 × HRmax/HRrest. It rests on a real relationship — a fitter heart pumps more per beat, so it beats slower at rest — but needs a true maximum heart rate, which is itself hard to get without a maximal effort. The estimated 220 − age is a population average with a standard deviation of about 10 beats.
- What is a MET?
- One metabolic equivalent, defined as 3.5 ml of oxygen per kilogram per minute — roughly what sitting still costs. A VO2 max of 42 is 12 METs, meaning you can sustain twelve times your resting metabolic rate at peak. Exercise prescriptions and cardiac testing are written in METs.
- Does body weight change the answer?
- Relative VO2 max is per kilogram, so losing weight raises it without changing anything about the heart or lungs. Absolute VO2 max, in litres a minute, does not move. For running, the relative figure is what predicts performance; for rowing and cycling, the absolute one matters more.
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