How to Improve VO2 Max Without Running All the Time

VO2 max isn’t something only marathon runners or triathletes should care about.

Improvements in this area can help your health, longevity, performance, and much more.
Even if you're not an endurance athlete (or you don't enjoy running)

Let’s dive into why you should care about your VO2 max, and how to improve it, to be more fit (and harder to kill)

What is VO2 max?

This is the max amount of oxygen your body can use during exercise.

It reflects your aerobic fitness and cardiovascular efficiency.
Which basically shows you how well your heart/lungs/muscles work together during activity.

Why should you care about your VO2 max?

1. Highly linked to longevity. Some studies show it’s better linked to longevity than traditional risk factors such as blood pressure, smoking, cholesterol.
2. Improves your fitness by allowing you to train harder (and longer) before fatigue sets in.
3. Makes you a better human. You’ll have better recovery, be more prepared for anything, and crush performance goals (like a spartan race, hyrox event, half marathon, or anything else fitness related)

How to improve your VO2 max (not just by running)

Most get so caught up in specific intervals, rest times, etc (which we’ll cover below)

But you don’t have to overcomplicate it, especially if you’re newer to fitness or the concurrent training principles we implement in all of our programs.

Because VO2 max is your body’s ability to utilize oxygen…

You have to do activities that demand sustained use of oxygen

or…

You have to create an oxygen 'debt'

If the intervals or exercises are doing one of those two things, you’re on the right track.

Running/biking/rowing are common ways to do this.
But we also do this with kettlebells, EMOMs, barbells, mixed modal workouts, and much more in our programming.

Practical ways you can start improving your VO2 max today

If you’re just starting out, don’t overcomplicate it.
Get your heart rate up for a longer period of time (sustained), or do shorter bouts of activities that get you breathing heavy (oxygen debt)

The longer you get into training, the more you’re going to have to work to improve your VO2 max.
Here’s some ways you can get started with:

1. 60-70% HR max. This is your long duration and steady state activity that you might know as zone 2 training
2. 70-85% HR max. This can be running or other cardio, but we love using high rep strength and concurrent training principles to achieve this (while maximizing efficiency in the gym)
3. 80-90% HR max. Tempo runs are how endurance athletes achieve this, we love interval weight training (IWT) to do this (if you missed the email a couple weeks back, reply ‘IWT’ for how to implement this in your program)
4. 85-95% HR max. This is sprint work or fartlek runs. This should last between 30 seconds and a few minutes, and use a 1:1 or 1:3 work to rest ratio
5. High intensity interval training. Think circuits using burpees, jump rope, air dyne, and other 'fun' metcon type movements
6. High intensity functional training. Think mixed modal workouts or Murph (we do both hard Murphs and zone 2 Murphs. Same workout, different benefits, and why your program should be intentional)

Pacing, recovery, and more tips for boosting VO2 max

Don’t just google or chatGPT a generic/cookie cutter program.
This is highly individualized based on your fitness level.

To customize this even further:

• A 1:1 or 1:3 work to rest ratio is a good starting point. Resting less than this will get you into anaerobic training, or lead to overtraining if your volume is too high. Most aren’t resting too long…but too short.
• How hard you go matters, so listen to your body. If your HR is still in zone 4 when you’re starting your next interval, you’re either going too hard, too long, or not resting enough.
• If you’ve been working out for a while, improving movement economy could be the best thing for your fitness. Better running mechanics or technique with bodyweight exercises will lead to better times in your workouts, and better VO2 over time. This doesn’t matter as much at first, but becomes really important the fitter you get.
• Don’t forget about progressive overload. You can’t keep doing the same thing for 3-4 months, or keep hopping to new programs, and expect to see long-term results. To keep progressing you could add an interval, run/move faster, reduce rest time or any combination.

This is where programming becomes so important.

Here’s how we do it at GGA:

4 week cycles (3 weeks of progressions, 1 deload week, followed by 3 more weeks of new progressions, etc)

We don't just run. Our programs mix running/rowing/biking, interval weight training, mixed modal work, different exercises and movements…all designed to keep progressing (and keep you from being bored)

If you want to try it out on your own, you’ve got all the steps to get started up above.

If you don’t want to overthink it (or you don’t want to just run all the time) and you want someone to tell you exactly what to do, try out our programming free for 7 days