“VO2 max is the measurement of the maximum oxygen delivery and utilisation for cardiovascular exercises,” says Jamey Plunk, Ph.D., professor of exercise science at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. That, in very simple terms, is the benefit of training to improve your VO2 max. The more oxygen you can efficiently consume and use, the easier exercise will feel at a given intensity level. You need this increase in breath rate and heart rate (your heart pumps the oxygenated blood to your working muscles) because your body requires oxygen to create energy for sustained cardiovascular exercise. Two of the most obvious changes are that you start breathing harder as your heart starts pumping faster. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that as you start running, your body undertakes a series of physiological changes designed to support your increased effort. RELATED: RW’s Alana Doyle Takes the VO2 Max Test What is VO2 Max? Those reasons, though, don’t have to be – scientists have done the research to explain the improvements, and they boil down, in large part, to individual increases in a simple but important measurement: VO2 max. What runner doesn’t want to run farther, faster, and with less effort? It’s the dream, right? And the truth is, most runners know it’s possible to get better with practice and training, but the reasons why this improvement occurs may seem more elusive.
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