Latest / Find Your Edge: Training, Nutrition + Longevity for Endurance Athletes / Is Your Garmin VO2 Max Accurate? (and how to predict yours) Ep 136
Transcript
- 0:37Coach Carlie: Hey y'all, and welcome back to the Find Your Edge podcast.
- 0:40Coach Carlie: I am your host, Coach Chris Newport, and one thing that I get asked all the time in our exercise physiology lab is is my Garmin or is my watch correct in its VO2 Max calculator?
- 0:54Coach Carlie: Now, while I don't know what all the equations that some of these devices use, what I do know is that there are simple ways to be able to predict what your VO2 is based on a certain amount of work that you're doing.
- 1:08Coach Carlie: So if you're watching this on YouTube or if you head over to a website, I've created a VO2 calculator.
- 1:15Coach Carlie: So keep in mind there's a couple of things to remember when it comes to volume of oxygen.
- 1:22Coach Carlie: VO2 is volume of oxygen.
- 1:25Coach Carlie: We like to think of VO2 max because that's the maximum amount of oxygen that you can take in and use for work.
- 1:32Coach Carlie: But there's a necessity for VO2 no matter what you're doing.
- 1:37Coach Carlie: So if you're at rest, you typically need about 3.5 as your volume of oxygen.
- 1:45Coach Carlie: Plus or minus a little bit, depends on your size, but that's where actually testing it becomes so important to get the more accurate representation.
- 1:54Coach Carlie: But then we also have a VO2 for things like walking, for things like running, which those two will change even at the same paces.
- 2:03Coach Carlie: So walking at one pace is a lower metabolic cost and uses less VO2 than running at the same pace.
- 2:11Coach Carlie: Cycling, we got the same kind of thing.
- 2:13Coach Carlie: So if you were to come into my lab and I wanted to create the appropriate protocol for you based on your current fitness level to be able to best determine what your max is, and then of course, zones and all those other things, I would need to know what is the prediction on your watch just for fun.
- 2:33Coach Carlie: And then also what is a pace that you can go at all day, and what is a pace that feels really hard.
- 2:39Coach Carlie: And then we fit the protocol in for that.
- 2:42Coach Carlie: Now, I have a cheat sheet.
- 2:44Coach Carlie: I'm not showing you this cheat sheet necessarily right now, but it's a very easy way to basically use this calculator.
- 2:49Coach Carlie: And I've created a spreadsheet and I've got it at our lab.
- 2:52Coach Carlie: And we look at, okay, this person has done a 5k at this particular pace, which means that volume of oxygen is X number.
- 3:01Coach Carlie: Therefore, they can probably go faster than that.
- 3:04Coach Carlie: So let's use an example.
- 3:06Coach Carlie: Let's say somebody is running and they're going to be doing, I don't know, how about six miles per hour?
- 3:13Coach Carlie: That's a 10-minute mile at a 0% grade.
- 3:17Coach Carlie: We calculate the necessary VO2 for that, and that's 35.7.
- 3:23Coach Carlie: And the uh ACSM metabolic equations are down there.
- 3:26Coach Carlie: Now, this is a great way to again predict what is the general amount of VO2 that you're going to need, but it's never going to be exactly right on.
- 3:38Coach Carlie: So let's play with this again.
- 3:40Coach Carlie: Let's say we're going to do 10 miles per hour, so a six-minute mile.
- 3:44Coach Carlie: I'm going to calculate the VO2, and that's 57.1.
- 3:49Coach Carlie: So with your watch, it is trying to calculate how much activity are you doing, and then what is a rough percentage of what that is of what you could be your max or what could be something like a 5K, because it's going to give you some of those predictions.
- 4:07Coach Carlie: We predict that based on your workouts that you've done, you could do a 25-minute 5K, a 15-minute 5K, whatever the case may be.
- 4:16Coach Carlie: So don't hold so much weight in what your VO2 Max predictor is on your device.
- 4:25Coach Carlie: Of course, we see that VO2 Max is one of the best longevity predictors.
- 4:29Coach Carlie: So it is nice.
- 4:30Coach Carlie: I like to think of it like a physical.
- 4:32Coach Carlie: If you can do it about once a year, that's a great thing to do.
- 4:36Coach Carlie: Also, know that your VO2 Max is going to vary sport to sport.
- 4:41Coach Carlie: So some of you traffes out there might see that you have a prediction for your run and you have a prediction for your bike.
- 4:48Coach Carlie: Totally normal.
- 4:50Coach Carlie: And maybe that's also an opportunity for you to improve one sport over the other.
- 4:55Coach Carlie: So again, don't hold too much weight in what your device says in terms of your VO2 Max.
- 5:02Coach Carlie: I also get people who are telling me, oh, my watch says that my VO2 Max went down.
- 5:07Coach Carlie: And that depresses them.
- 5:08Coach Carlie: Turn that feature off, y'all.
- 5:10Coach Carlie: Like you should not feel depressed about your fitness level.
- 5:15Coach Carlie: But also know that whatever you do, there is a metabolic cost.
- 5:20Coach Carlie: Whether you are walking, whether you are sitting, whether you are sleeping, whether you are sprinting, whether you are running.
- 5:27Coach Carlie: And that, of course, translates to calorie expenditure too.
- 5:31Coach Carlie: So keep that in mind.
- 5:33Coach Carlie: But VO2 is all about how much oxygen do you need to take that oxygen and send it to working muscles so that you can do work.
- 5:44Coach Carlie: But at the end of the day, it's your training that is going to improve not only your overall VO2 max, but your economy.
- 5:53Coach Carlie: So how can you be super efficient and actually use a little less VO2 for any given pace?
- 6:01Coach Carlie: And that goes along with appropriate form work, with appropriate strength training, with good nutrition and things that are going to support your body in this quest of improving your fitness and not just your VO2 max.
- 6:17Coach Carlie: So if you want to head over to our website and play with this calculator, you can make a couple of predictions and be like, okay, well, I know, because we've had some folks lately who've been able to get up to 12 miles per hour or faster, their estimated uh VO2 is in the 60s.
- 6:33Coach Carlie: But when you actually come into the lab, that's when we see, okay, the prediction might be 67, but your actual VO2 max might be 60, might be 62.
- 6:42Coach Carlie: So at least it gives us as testers a more specific idea of where your fitness level might be at so that we can determine the appropriate protocol and you can not be overly fatigued during your test.
- 6:57Coach Carlie: So hopefully that gave you a little bit of extra information on whether your device is correct, whether you should pay attention to it, and what is VO2, and then what is VO2 Max and how should it matter to you?
- 7:11Coach Carlie: So hopefully that was just a little, a little bite-sized piece of fun information based on your fitness level.
- 7:18Coach Carlie: And if you have more questions about these things, send us a message.
- 7:22Coach Carlie: I want to hear about them so that we can put more good information out to help you be more awesome.
- 7:28Coach Carlie: Thanks for listening, and we will catch you next time.