VO2 Max by Age: What Is a Good Score?

What is a good VO2 max for your age?

A good VO2 max is one above the median for your age and sex, and a high one is above the 75th percentile.

The reference built on measured tests rather than estimates is the FRIEND registry (Fitness Registry and the Importance of Exercise National Database), published by Kaminsky and colleagues in Mayo Clinic Proceedings in 2015 and now used as the reference standard in ACSM's Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription.

It pooled 7,783 maximal treadmill tests with gas analysis from 8 US laboratories, in men and women aged 20 to 79 without heart disease. Selected percentiles from its treadmill table:

Read it like this. A 45-year-old man who tests at 40 is above the median for his decade (37.8) but short of the 75th percentile (45.0), so he is above average.

A 45-year-old woman at 33 is above her decade's 75th percentile (32.4), which is high. The 25th, 50th and 75th lines matter because they are the same lines the mortality study below uses to sort people into low, average and high fitness.

Two cautions. First, the registry was updated in 2022 with 22,379 tests from 34 US labs, and the new treadmill standards sit 1.5 to 4.6 mL/kg/min lower than the 2015 figures above, so the table is slightly demanding. Second, these are American adults. We did not find a published table of lab-measured VO2 max for Singapore adults, so use the percentiles as a guide, not a verdict.

What is VO2 max, exactly?

VO2 max is the most oxygen your body can take in and use during all-out exercise, which is how Changi General Hospital's sports medicine centre defines it. It is usually written in millilitres of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute (mL/kg/min). Exercise scientists also use METs, where one MET is 3.5 mL/kg/min, as the Mandsager study defines it. A VO2 max of 35 is 10 METs.

Because the usual unit divides by body weight, your score moves when your weight does. Someone who uses 3.0 litres of oxygen a minute at 80 kg scores 37.5. The same lungs, heart and legs at 75 kg score 40.0. That is why fat loss alone can lift a watch or lab reading, and why two people with the same engine can post different numbers.

Why does VO2 max matter for long-term health?

Because low fitness tracks with early death about as strongly as the risk factors doctors already screen for. Mandsager and colleagues followed 122,007 adults who did a treadmill test at Cleveland Clinic between 1991 and 2014, for a median of 8.4 years, during which 13,637 died.

They sorted people by fitness for their age and sex: low (below the 25th percentile), below average, above average, high, and elite (the 97.7th percentile and up).

1. 01Low against eliteAn adjusted hazard ratio for death of 5.04 (95% CI 4.10 to 6.20).
2. 02Below average against above average1.41, so even moving from the bottom half to the top half of your age group counted.
3. 03Elite against high0.77, so the benefit kept going at the top. The authors saw no upper limit.
4. 04Against other risk factorsIn the same model smoking carried a hazard ratio of 1.41, diabetes 1.40 and coronary artery disease 1.29, and the authors judged the risk of low fitness to be as large or larger.

This is an observational study of patients referred for a treadmill test at one hospital, with fitness estimated from treadmill time rather than measured with gas analysis, so it shows an association, not proof that raising your number adds years. It is still the clearest reason to care about the figure.

Singapore's own physical activity guidelines (HPB and SportSG, 2022) set the weekly minimum: 150 to 300 minutes of moderate aerobic activity a week, with a minute of vigorous activity counting as two, plus muscle and bone strengthening on at least 2 days.

How fast does VO2 max drop with age?

About 10% per decade in the 2015 FRIEND data: 9.2% per decade for men and 10.3% for women across five decades. The 2022 update found a steeper average fall on the treadmill, 13.5% (4.0 mL/kg/min) per decade over six decades, and 16.4% on the bike. In the table above the male median halves from 48.0 in the 20s to 24.4 in the 70s.

The practical point is that you are compared with your own decade. Holding the same score from 45 to 55 moves you up the percentile ladder. Keep strength training in the week as you age as well. Strength training after 50 shows how to build it safely.

How is VO2 max measured in a lab?

With a cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET). You run on a treadmill or ride a bike while wearing a mask, and a metabolic cart analyses your breath to measure the oxygen you take up (indirect calorimetry).

The pace, slope or resistance rises until you reach your limit. At Changi General Hospital's Singapore Sport and Exercise Medicine Centre the appointment takes about 1 hour 30 minutes, with at most 15 minutes of running, and the test needs an all-out effort.

Compare like with like. In the 2022 FRIEND standards peak oxygen uptake was higher on the treadmill than on the bike, so a cycle test will usually read lower. Preparation varies by lab: DA MedSuites, for example, asks for a 4-hour fast, so follow the instructions of the lab you book.

How accurate is a smartwatch VO2 max estimate?

Close on average, often well off for one person. A 2022 meta-analysis by the INTERLIVE network (Molina-Garcia et al., Sports Medicine) pooled 14 validation studies with 403 participants. Watches that estimate from resting data overestimated lab VO2 max by 2.17 mL/kg/min on average, with individual errors from 13.07 below to 17.41 above.

Watches that estimate from data recorded during workouts were almost exact on average (0.09 below), but individual readings still ranged about 10 mL/kg/min either way. The authors' verdict: fine for groups, not yet good enough for an individual decision.

A 2025 Apple Watch study (Lambe et al., PLOS ONE) tested 28 adults in a lab after 5 to 10 days of wear. The watch read 6.07 mL/kg/min below the lab on average, with a mean absolute percentage error of 13.31%, and individual differences from 6.11 below to 18.26 above.

A Singapore study points the same way: a questionnaire-based estimate with no exercise at all correlated with lab-measured VO2 max at r = 0.83 in 100 Singapore adults aged 18 to 65 (Sloan et al., Singapore Medical Journal 2013). Estimates rank people reasonably well. They do not pin down your exact number.

Can your IPPT 2.4 km run time estimate your VO2 max?

Roughly, yes. The 2.4 km run carries the most points in the IPPT, 50 of 100 under the format MINDEF announced in 2014. The American College of Sports Medicine's equation for a 1.5-mile run, about 2.41 km, is VO2 max = 3.5 + 483 divided by your time in minutes.

It is quoted from ACSM's Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription in, for example, a 2023 study of US Marine recruits (Givens et al., Nutrients). Since the IPPT distance is 14 metres shorter, the estimate comes out a fraction high.

Put the two tables side by side and a 14-minute run, about 38, sits at the FRIEND median for a man in his 40s. Treat it as a rough guide. Two runners with the same VO2 max can post different times because of pacing and running economy, and heat matters: in results from seven marathons, finishing times slowed progressively as heat stress rose (Ely et al., 2007).

Run your check in the cool of early morning and compare runs done in similar weather. For pacing plans and drills, see our IPPT 2.4 km run guide.

How do you raise your VO2 max?

Train your heart and lungs regularly, and include some hard intervals. A meta-analysis of 28 controlled trials with 723 mostly young adults (Milanović et al., Sports Medicine 2015) found steady endurance training raised VO2 max by 4.9 mL/kg/min against people who did not train, and high-intensity interval training by 5.5. Intervals came out about 1.2 mL/kg/min ahead, a small edge, and both worked.

The best-known interval session is the 4x4. In Helgerud and colleagues' 2007 trial, 40 moderately trained men did 4 minutes at 90 to 95% of maximum heart rate, then 3 minutes of active recovery at 70%, four times, 3 days a week for 8 weeks.

VO2 max rose 7.2%, from 55.5 to 60.4 mL/kg/min, more than in groups doing the same total work at steady, easier paces. A sensible week built on that evidence and the national guideline:

1. 01One 4x4 interval sessionOn a track, a park connector or a gym treadmill. The work bouts should be hard enough that you can only say a few words. The recovery is a slow jog or a brisk walk. Add a second session after a month if you recover well.
2. 02Two or three easy sessionsBrisk walking, jogging, cycling or swimming at a pace you can talk at, so the week reaches 150 to 300 moderate minutes.
3. 03Two strength sessionsSquats, hinges, lunges, pushes and pulls, which covers the national guideline's 2 strength days. Our strength and conditioning coaching page shows how the two kinds of training fit together.
4. 04A retest every 8 to 12 weeksThe same method each time: the same lab, the same watch on the same route, or the same 2.4 km at the same hour.

Should you see a doctor before a VO2 max test or hard intervals?

Yes, if you have heart symptoms or a heart, lung, kidney or metabolic condition. A VO2 max test is maximal by design, and the work bouts of a 4x4 come close.

Under the American College of Sports Medicine's screening model (Riebe et al., 2015), whether you need medical clearance first depends on how active you already are, whether you have symptoms or known cardiovascular, metabolic or kidney disease, and how hard you plan to exercise.

Changi General Hospital recommends a doctor's consultation if you are in doubt about your condition for its test, and Apex Sports Clinic tells people with known heart conditions, such as an irregular heartbeat, to consult their doctor or cardiologist first.

1. 01Stop and get medical helpFor chest pain or pressure, breathlessness out of proportion to the effort, dizziness or fainting, or a racing or irregular heartbeat.
2. 02See your doctor before maximal testingIf you have high blood pressure, diabetes, a heart condition, or take medication that affects heart rate. Our exercise with high blood pressure guide covers how to train around it.
3. 03Nothing here is a diagnosisA low score is a reason to train and to talk to your doctor, not a medical verdict, and nobody can promise you a particular result.

Where can you get a lab VO2 max test in Singapore?

At hospital sports medicine centres and private clinics. These four list the test on their own pages. Prices are as published on 26 October 2026, with each page's GST basis:

Before you book, ask three things: is oxygen measured from your breath with a mask, or estimated. Is it a treadmill or a bike. And who reviews the result with you. If you already have a heart condition, ask your doctor which lab to use.

When does a coach help with VO2 max?

A coach does not run lab tests or read medical results. What a coach does is make the plan above happen: pacing the 4x4 so the work bouts are hard but repeatable, fitting easy sessions and two strength days around your week, and retesting the same way every 8 to 12 weeks.

Fit Titans matches you with a verified freelance coach who trains you at home, in your condo gym, at a park or at a Gym Pod, with no membership.

Each coach sets their own rate: most charge S$80-S$130 for a 60-minute 1-to-1 session, the median is S$90 and the full range is S$50-S$210 (measured October 2026). The first session is a paid trial at 10% off, and how often to see a personal trainer shows how many sessions a week a plan like this needs. If anything in the doctor section above applies to you, get cleared first.