How to Improve Your VO2 Max — Dr. Peter Attia

Dr. Attia received his medical degree from the Stanford University School of Medicine and trained for five years at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in general surgery, where he was the recipient of several prestigious awards, including Resident of the Year. He spent two years at the National Institutes of Health as a surgical oncology fellow at the National Cancer Institute, where his research focused on immune-based therapies for melanoma.

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ABOUT TIM:
Tim Ferriss is one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People” and an early-stage tech investor/advisor in Uber, Facebook, Twitter, Shopify, Duolingo, Alibaba, and 50+ other companies. He is also the author of five #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers: The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Chef, Tools of Titans and Tribe of Mentors. The Observer and other media have named him “the Oprah of audio” due to the influence of his podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, which has exceeded 900 million downloads and been selected for “Best of Apple Podcasts” three years running.

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[westcoastkidd]

1) Spend majority of your training in zone 2 and increase the duration gradually over time
2) Do high intensity intervals once a week --- intervals should be 3-8 minutes and rest time should equal the duration of the interval

[maggie]

Started running again in April. VO2 max was 38. I have ran close to every single day and now in August, 4 months later my VO2 max is at 41. It's a great feeling to know you are improving

[tomdebevoise]

I am 66, and I have been training for 40+ years. I do about 5-7 hours of biking and 5 hours of yoga. My Vo2 max is around 50. I ride with the Reston bike club, our local GII club, and the A/B drop guys. We move at 18-24 MPH along the flat, and the distances are 30 to 50 miles. There are usually multiple pacelines, and in a paceline, you hit Z5 for 2 to 4 minutes dozens of times, not counting hills. More than half of these guys are racers or former racers. Most weeks, I will only do 1 ride like this a week because I get overtrained. I will go out for 90 minutes on the off days and move at 14 to 15 mph. It makes riding more fun.
All this said, I frequently see men and women on their bikes with their bellies almost almost reaching the top tube. Anyone can push a bike at around 14mph on the flat; it only takes about 60-80 watts. For a while, I had to go to an indoor cycling studio due to surgery on my arm. They would blast dance/hip-hop music, and during the sprints, my meter would show 300 watts, and I would see the person's meter next to me registering 40 watts.
If I had to give any advice to someone wanting to improve their VO2 max, I suggest getting into a group setting that will challenge you. Hot yoga or Pilates can be very intense, and most studios have a progression of classes that will get you there. Join your local bike club and ride with the Cs for a while, then go on a B ride. Intensity is critical. I apologize, but you must suffer; embrace your inner David Goggins.

[fishingphill]

I think too many people think zone 2 is a walk in the park. I like Dr Inigo San Millán description of zone 2. You can talk but it don't want to and a long zone 2 hurts. You can't go off heart rate. In 56, going off the calculations for my age I thought my zone 2 was about 105-115 HR. I went and did a properly VO2 Max and lactate test. When the results came back a week later from the university. My True zone 2 is 138-152 HR because of my fitness. I can tell you now, doing an 60-180 minutes in this zone is not easy but it is doable because that's where I'm at.

[Gref]

Like any short clip from long interview, this lacks the important info we all need to hear. If you're a beginner:
1) you're not able to do 90% heart rate training, certainly not for 4 minutes and you won't be able to recover to under 100 bpm in 4 minutes or less
2) you don't have zone 2 and need to build your aerobic capacity from absolute nothing
3) everything you do cardio-wise is giving you progress so start with that and enjoy it, because it won't last but will get you hooked and fall in love with training

[msvarr]

Tim always asks the best clarifying questions. It’s like he reads my mind

[topjimmy]

this is LEGIT possible. Not speaking to the accuracy of an Apple Watch in measuring VO2 max, but I first got my watch in May 2023 and initial brisk outdoor walks put my VO2 max at 26.2. After a year and a half of walking, hiking, running, etc, my latest measure of VO2 max on the same watch now shows as 39.5 in October 2024. That's an almost 51% increase in 18 months.

[esthergennn]

I have improved my VO2 max from a low of 26.7 in Seltember to my current 37.2 in April through long distance walking. Started taking up running as of late to keep raising VO2 max. I am aiming to finish this year at at least 42. I am 27 years old.

[ingosteinhaeuser]

Good insight. My VO2 Max is 55 and I am over 50.
Lots of swimming, running and gym did it for me

[anthonykent]

It's great to have this clip. I spent an hour so looking for this exact information a year ago.

[richardjackson]

Perfect length vid, concise and all key points covered. Thx Tim

[JG_]

I'm an asthmatic that went from not being able to run a mile at any pace to being able to do a sub 12 min/2 mile within 7 months. My Vo2 max is in the mid-upper 50s now, it's definitely possible to drastically improve if you work hard and work consistently. I never did any zone 2 training though, I try to max out or come close to maxing out with every run (zone 4-5). Now that I want to do a 5k in 18 minutes I think I'll do lower intensity training in order to build endurance.

[deldridg]

This is great info. Working through the Garmin Coach programmes using Jeff Galloway, I've been doing a lot of long slow runs (I do these anyway) and the intervals are 800m at pace (whatever is appropriate - for me it's around 4:00 min/km pace) then 3 mins of walking x 8. When I was 54, I built a VO2Max (implied by my watch) of around 53. Now at 56, I'm at 49 but aiming for mid 50s again using the same approach. Tons of my Zone 2 comes from golfing!

[maggie]

This video is the best. Easy to digest and right to the point

[junu]

The garbage training zone (Z3, Z4) sounds like an overstatement. According to Dr. Rhonda Patrick, Zone 2 training is ineffective for some people (40%).

[remain___]

1:44 I've always appreciated his lightness

[servothers]

Brand spanking new to Zone 2 lingo. I'm just as confused as I was before the video. Thanks guys.

[jdonalds]

Thanks Tim. Would love to hear about your Ski training what you did how !

[maxkotlarchyk]

Hadnt watched this video before i started a few months ago really getting into running. I did use the 180-age for my target heart rate. Turns out I have basically been doing everything in your video naturally and whoa has it been working well.

Some specifics: I do a lot of trail running and really enjoy being in nature. This varies terrain has improved my road running. I wear barefoot style shoes which has really strengthened my calves and ankles. I have looked for as 5k trail races I can. When I do a 5k I run it normal and then goal all out for the last mile. Because I”ve been doing longer runs I can show up early and warm up for a. couple miles. I also have been doing longer runs with lots of walking too.

I bought a HR monitor to learn about my heart rate. What I learned though very quickly for me was if I can breath while running in and out of my nose without having to use my mouth, I haven’t crossed the threshold into the anaerobic zone. So now I just use this rather a watch or device for the most part.

Even though I could barely run a few miles a few months ago, I found myself running a cumulative marathon over the course of a day last week.. so yeah, it is definitely working.

[johnmorgan]

A lot of people think zone 2 is just plodding along but in reality it's more a tempo type intensity.a 4 to 5 out of 10 effort wise. This is where Arthur Lydiard had his runners spending most of their time. Its steady but not all that easy