Dr. Andy Galpin

But I think it really highlights another theme of this entire show, which is the importance of understanding what maximum performance looks like.

If you want to be a better athlete, that's great.

It's my personal interest, but that doesn't have to be yours.

But the value that creates to the rest of society is unmatched.

VO2 max is one of those examples.

I will share with you many, many more of those in other episodes.

But that is, to me, one of the best examples of when we stop looking at health and performance differently and start looking at it as, hey, if your physiology performs at the highest level possible, you're going to be healthy, right?

Bill Bowerman, if you have a body, you're an athlete.

And so I just want your physiology to be functioning at the highest level that can and

You can then choose to use those skills however you'd like to be better at playing golf or basketball or pickleball or riding mountain bikes.

I don't really care whether you want to have more energy, more recovery, better sleep throughout the day.

Something like a VO2 max is going to be intricately involved in all of those things.

Now, for those of you that absolutely love numbers, I'll give you some, but please don't get too specific and particular about these couple of studies I'm going to go over.

Think of them just as really highlights of the overall field.

Depending on which population is studied in a certain setting or database, these numbers will vary slightly.

But again, this is going to represent what you would generally find across dozens, if not hundreds of similar studies that looked at VO2 max.

and overall health and wellness.

Quick point of clarification.

When we say fitness, scientifically, we're referring to VO2 max.

In the actual strength conditioning and performance settings, you might have a different definition of it.