VO2 Max Calculator

VO2 max is the maximum volume of oxygen your body can take in and use per minute, expressed in millilitres per kilogram of body weight per minute (ml/kg/min). Higher values mean your heart, lungs and muscles deliver and burn oxygen more effectively, which is why it is the most common single measure of aerobic fitness.

Use the Cooper run if you can safely run hard for 12 minutes, since a maximal effort tracks lab values best for trained people. The resting heart rate method needs no exercise at all but is the roughest. The Rockport walk is gentler and suits beginners or anyone who prefers not to run.

Cooper: (distance in meters minus 504.9) divided by 44.73. Resting heart rate: 15.3 times (max heart rate divided by resting heart rate), where max heart rate is 208 minus 0.7 times age. Rockport uses a weighted formula on weight, age, sex, walk time and ending heart rate. Results are rounded to one decimal.

It depends heavily on age and sex, which is why the tool shows a category rather than a single cutoff. Many active adults land between 35 and 50 ml/kg/min, well-trained amateurs reach the 50s, and elite endurance athletes can exceed 70. The category label compares you against age and sex norm bands.

The result is placed into Very poor, Poor, Fair, Good, Excellent or Superior using age and sex bands adapted from common Cooper Institute and ACSM norm tables. The bands step down with age, so the same number can rate differently for a 25-year-old and a 55-year-old.

For the resting heart rate and Rockport methods, age is part of the formula, and sex is needed for the category. For the Cooper method the VO2 number itself needs only distance, but age and sex are still used to label your category. Sex here refers to the biological input the norm tables were built on.

They are estimates, not lab measurements. Field tests can differ from a true VO2 max by several points because pacing, fitness, terrain, weather and heart rate accuracy all introduce error. Use the number to track your own trend over time rather than to compare precisely with someone else.

No. The gold standard is a graded treadmill or cycle test with a mask that analyses your expired gases. These field estimates are a practical, free stand-in for training decisions, but they cannot match instrumented testing for precision.

Yes. The calculation runs in your browser, so the height, weight, age and heart rate you type are never uploaded or stored. Closing the tab discards everything.