What's your VO2max, and how do you raise it for HYROX?
Estimate your VO2max from a recent race, a 12-minute test or your watch. See where you sit for your age, get training paces and an 8-week plan.
How we calculate this
- Race time: Jack Daniels and Jimmy Gilbert's VDOT equations (Oxygen Power, 1979). One equation gives the oxygen cost of running at your race speed, the other the share of VO2max you can hold for that long; dividing one by the other gives your VDOT, used here as your VO2max. The same equations give the race predictions and training paces.
- 12-minute test: Cooper's 1968 formula from JAMA: VO2max = (metres covered − 504.9) ÷ 44.73.
- Your watch: we use the number as you enter it.
- Age and sex norms: treadmill reference standards from the FRIEND registry (Kaminsky and colleagues, Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 2022), based on directly measured VO2max in healthy US adults aged 20 to 89, as reproduced in published summaries of that study. Treat your percentile as approximate: it's a rough guide, not a medical assessment. Under-20s are compared with 20–29. The labels ("average", "high" and so on) are our plain-English bands for those percentiles.
- Max heart rate: Tanaka's formula, 208 − 0.7 × age (2001). Individuals vary by 10 bpm or more, so use a real max if you know it.
- The plan: built around the 4 × 4 minute intervals from Helgerud and colleagues (2007), plus threshold work, easy volume and HYROX-style compromised running, with a lighter week 4 and a retest in week 8.
Questions
What is a good VO2max for HYROX?+
There's no official target, and it depends on your age and sex. Being above the median for your age (for example around 40 ml/kg/min for men in their 30s and 28 for women in their 30s in the FRIEND registry) means your engine is in decent shape; higher helps, because in a lab study of a simulated HYROX race VO2max was among the strongest predictors of finish time. Strength, station skill and pacing still decide a lot, so compare yourself with your own past numbers rather than a fixed figure.
How do I increase my VO2max?+
Combine plenty of easy running with one or two hard sessions a week. Hard intervals have the best evidence: in Helgerud's 2007 trial, 4 × 4 minutes at 90–95% of max heart rate with 3 minutes of easy jogging between raised VO2max by 7.2% in 8 weeks. A meta-analysis of 28 studies found gains of around 5 ml/kg/min from either endurance or interval training. Keep easy days easy and build volume gradually.
Is my watch's VO2max accurate?+
It's a reasonable estimate on average but can be off for any one person. A 2022 meta-analysis of wearables found that watches using workout data were close on average, while individual readings could differ from a lab test by up to about 10 ml/kg/min either way; watches using resting data tended to read high. Track the trend over months and pair it with a repeatable test such as a 5 km time trial.
How long does it take to improve VO2max?+
Most training studies last 6 to 12 weeks and find clear gains in that time. Beginners improve fastest; the fitter you are, the slower the gains. That's why the plan here is 8 weeks with a retest at the end.
How accurate is a VO2max calculator?+
Field formulas such as Daniels' VDOT and the Cooper test estimate VO2max from performance, so they also reflect running economy and pacing. Expect an error of several ml/kg/min for an individual. A lab test with a gas analyser is the only direct measure, but a repeatable field test is ideal for tracking progress.
Keep reading: HYROX, VO2max and heart health, how to train for HYROX and what is a good HYROX time?