Dr. Andy Galpin

milliliters per kilogram per minute.

Any of you that are maybe older, let's go ahead and jump way down.

Let's say you are 71 years old.

Again, talking about 71-year-old female here, below 18, you're still above that line of independence, but it would still be considered low.

You would really want to be looking at something like 22 to 24 to be considered above average, and then really over 36 to be considered elite.

Now, I know my friend Peter Attia likes to tell people he wants them to be considered elite in at least the decade before their actual age, if not two decades before.

And that's a phenomenal way to think about it.

So just as that example, if you were that incredibly ambitious and vigorous 71-year-old, elite for you would be 36 milliliters per kilogram per minute.

The decade before, again, 60 to 69, that would be 40 milliliters.

But if you wanted to be that extra person and get that double gold stamp from Peter, you'd want to be above 46.

So the difference is going from 36 to 46 would give you that elite category for two decades younger than you.

For the men, it's a similar story.

You just add a little bit of numbers to it.

So a male who is, say, between 50 and 59 years old,

Above average would be 36 to 40 milliliters per kilogram per minute, and you'd need to be above 50 to be considered elite at that age.

Now, in my personal opinion, I kind of like to say there's no excuse to be under 50 unless you're over 50, meaning you have no reason to be having a VO2 max of lower than 50 unless you're over 50 years old.

And even then, 50 to 60, I don't want you anywhere near below 50.

So that's a nice number to go after.

We'll also talk about in a second how changeable that is and how much it responds to various types of training.

And so it's going to give you a little bit of hope.