What is a good VO2 max?
Above the middle for your age and sex is good, and the top quarter is great. For a man in his 40s that means above 35, and above 43 for the top quarter. For a woman in her 40s, above 26, and about 32 for the top quarter.
Search for a good VO2 max and you’ll find a dozen charts that don’t agree. Garmin colors your number Superior to Poor using The Cooper Institute’s ratings. Older charts from the US FRIEND registry ran 1.5 to 4.6 points higher than the 2022 update. The same 40 can be “good” on your watch and middling on a website, and nobody tells you which chart they used.
We judge every number on the current US chart, FRIEND 2022, built from 16,278 lab treadmill tests in 34 labs. Aim for the top half of your decade. If you train, aim for the top quarter. Then hold it as you get older.
The numbers by age
Like the age groups in a race, a number only means something next to people your age and sex. The table shows the middle of each group and where the top quarter starts, in ml/kg/min on a treadmill.
| Age | Men, middle | Men, top quarter | Women, middle | Women, top quarter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20s | 46.5 | 53.2 | 36.6 | 43.3 |
| 30s | 39.7 | 48.2 | 28.3 | 35.3 |
| 40s | 35.3 | 43.1 | 25.7 | 31.5 |
| 50s | 29.2 | 36.3 | 22.9 | 27.4 |
| 60s | 24.6 | 30.4 | 19.6 | 23.4 |
| 70s | 20.6 | 24.9 | 17.2 | 20.2 |
| 80s | 17.6 | 20.7 | 15.4 | 17.9 |
FRIEND publishes every tenth percentile. The top-quarter values are drawn on a straight line between the 70th and 80th, so treat them as close estimates. These are typical ranges, and the Gyroscope app personalizes yours.
The four groups
We use the plain group names from the Cleveland Clinic study of 122,007 treadmill tests: low (bottom quarter), below average (25th to 49th percentile), above average (50th to 74th) and high (75th and up). In that study, people below average had 1.41 times the risk of death of people above average, the same as smoking. The study found no level where more fitness stopped helping.
Check where your number came from
- A bike test runs lower than a treadmill test. Men in their 40s had a middle value of 27.4 on a bike, so rank a bike result on the bike chart (the tool below has it).
- An Apple Watch came in 6.25 points under a lab test on average, which can drop you a whole group (see is Apple Watch VO2 max accurate?).
- A field test usually lands within 4 to 7 points of a lab.
Put your number in the tool below for your percentile, your group and your fitness age. For how the chart moves with age, see what’s a good VO2 max for my age?
What your result means, and what to do next
- Low or below average. Most of the health gap sits in the first step up, so this is where training pays the most.
- Above average or high. Hold it as the years pass. Holding steady after 40 already counts as climbing.
- The next group up is a target for one training block, but people respond very differently, from almost nothing to a lot.
- Make sure the number is real. A watch can be several points off. Get your true VO2 max
- Start the two layers. Cardio most days at a pace where you can still talk, and one or two hard sessions a week. How to raise it
- Retest the same way in 8 to 12 weeks. Same test, same route or same watch. Believe a change of more than 2 to 4 points.
3 sources
- Kaminsky LA and others, Updated reference standards for cardiorespiratory fitness measured with cardiopulmonary exercise testing (FRIEND), Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 2022mayoclinicproceedings.org
- Mandsager K and others, Association of Cardiorespiratory Fitness With Long-term Mortality Among Adults Undergoing Exercise Treadmill Testing, JAMA Network Open, 2018pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Garmin, Forerunner 265 Owner's Manual, About VO2 Max. Estimates, checked 2026-11-14www8.garmin.com
