Defining VO2 Max and Building Cardiorespiratory Fitness with Brady Holmer

“VO2 max” has become a buzzword in fitness and biohacking, but what does it measure in our

bodies? How useful is it as a metric, and how can we optimize its principles? To learn more, I am

joined by researcher and science writer Brady Holmer.

Brady specializes in health, nutrition, and exercise, giving him a unique perspective on fitness

and wellbeing. He explains that VO2 max provides a general measure of one’s cardiovascular

system; it factors in the heart’s stroke volume, or the amount of blood pumped out in a single

beat, as well as the lungs’ ability to take in oxygen and the skeletal muscles’ ability to absorb

that oxygen.

“VO2 max is measured in milliliters of oxygen per kilogram body weight per minute…

Improving it by three milliliters per kilogram per minute was associated with an 11% reduction

in all-cause mortality.”

Additionally, VO2 max has been found to be a stronger predictor of mortality than current