Calculating your VO2max: Cooper test, heart rate and table
Medical review in progress.
Cooper (JAMA, 1968) relates the distance covered in 12 minutes to maximal oxygen uptake: distance in miles = 0.3138 + 0.0278 × VO2max. Uth and colleagues (European Journal of Applied Physiology, 2004) propose VO2max ≈ 15.3 × maximum heart rate / resting heart rate, in trained men.
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Cooper example: 2 400 meters (about 1.49 miles) in 12 minutes. In miles: 2 400 / 1 609.344. VO2max = (distance in miles − 0.3138) / 0.0278 = 42.4 ml/kg/min. Uth example: maximum heart rate 190, resting 60. 15.3 × 190 / 60 = 48.5 ml/kg/min.
Calculating your VO2max
Two calculations, your choice. The Cooper test uses the distance covered in 12 minutes. The other uses maximum heart rate and resting heart rate. Both give milliliters of oxygen per minute per kilogram. Neither is a test with gas analysis.
Method 1: Cooper test
Kenneth Cooper compared, in 115 US Air Force men (17 to 52 years), a 12-minute run and a maximal oxygen uptake on a treadmill. The correlation is 0.897. The printed equation is: distance (miles) = 0.3138 + 0.0278 × VO2max. The calculator inverts this equation. One mile is 1 609.344 meters. The form on this page takes the distance in miles and converts it for you.
The article's table starts at 1.0 mile. Below that, the data are reported as insufficient: the calculator does not answer. The study does not include women. Variability is greater under 1.40 miles.
Method 2: heart rates
Uth and colleagues measured the VO2max of 46 trained men, aged 21 to 51. In a subgroup of 10, the factor between VO2max (ml/min/kg) and the maximum / resting heart rate ratio was 15.3. In the other 36, the standard error was 2.7 ml/min/kg, about 4.5 %, with measured heart rates.
If maximum heart rate is only predicted from age, the same study finds a standard error of 4.7 ml/min/kg. This calculator does not guess maximum heart rate: a measured value is needed. The authors write that the principle is not validated for groups other than these trained men.
Reading your result
42.4 ml/kg/min (the 2 400 m example) is a Cooper estimate, not a ranking. 48.5 ml/kg/min (the 190 and 60 example) is an Uth estimate, with the published error of a few milliliters.
This page publishes no VO2max table by age and sex. No such scale is in the two articles read. The measured table from the FRIEND registry is on the VO2max guide. Calling a value “good” from Cooper or Uth alone would be inventing a threshold.
Improving your VO2max
Both articles describe an estimate, not a program. The training that changes VO2max is built with someone who knows the person's history. A laboratory test, with gas analysis, remains the reference measurement. Its price and the venues (INSEP in France or others) are not costed here.
Cycling has no separate equation on this page. The Cooper test is a run on foot.
This information does not replace the advice of a healthcare professional.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate your VO2max without a test?
Without a laboratory test, this page offers two estimates: the 12-minute distance (Cooper, 1968) or the ratio of maximum to resting heart rate (Uth, 2004). Both remain estimates.
What is a good VO2max?
This page gives no threshold by age or sex. The articles cited do not contain that table. The figure is read with the method that produced it and its margin of error.
Is the VO2max from watches reliable?
It is an estimate, like these formulas. Elio offers one from your efforts, to follow a trend. It is not a laboratory measurement.
How long does it take to improve your VO2max?
These articles give no duration. A change shows by repeating the same method in the same conditions, not by comparing Cooper one day and a watch the next.
Is the calculation free?
Yes. The distance and the heart rates stay in the browser.
Sources
Read also
An estimate is not a laboratory test. Elio offers a VO2max estimate from your efforts. It is not a laboratory measurement. See the Elio band