Dan Lloyds Journey to Fitness and Health: The Importance of VO2 Max

I’ve done a lot of VO2 max tests in my adult life and they all had one thing in common: I hated them all.

Except for the most recent one.

To accurately test your VO2 max, you need to push yourself to your physical limits. They are painful, and I think they are best described as an ordeal. The icing on the cake is the mask that fits your face perfectly, while the cake itself is the excruciating pain in your legs and lungs when you’re close to exhaustion.

There are things I miss about being a professional cyclist, but there are many things I don’t. Training in the rain, filling my anti-doping stash every day of the year, living out of a suitcase and crashing immediately come to mind. But the VO2 max tests are very close to the top.

Read more: What are power and heart rate zones and what do they mean for cyclists?

So why didn’t I hate the last one? As I have recently learned that VO2 max is not just a fitness indicator for elite endurance athletes who care, we ALL should know what ours is and keep it as high as we can if we want to live the longest and healthiest life possible. That’s what episode 2 of my journey back to health and fitness is all about: why we should all care about our VO2 max. You can find this video embedded within this article.

If you’re still skeptical (I would have been if I’d read this a year ago), let me quote Peter Attia, one of the world’s most respected longevity experts. I’ve listened to many of his podcasts and I’m through most of his book, Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity. Here’s what he had to say on the subject of VO2 max:

It is the best predictor of useful life. More strongly associated with reduced mortality risk than any other metric we know of.

That sentence alone, when I heard it on a podcast, made me sit up, pay attention, and change my perspective. Of ALL the metrics we have for predicting how long we’ll live, VO2 max is the best. This is powerful. Attia goes on to say:

Whether you smoke or don’t smoke, whether you have diabetes or not, whether you have end-stage kidney disease or not, whether you have heart disease or not, hypertension or not, all of these things play a role in predicting how long . of your life, but not as much as having a very high VO2 max. VO2 max rises above all other biomarkers we have to predict end of life.

That’s not to say that the only thing we should do from here is try to increase our VO2 max, it’s just to highlight its importance. I’ll cover the other things we should be paying attention to throughout this series.

Read more: Dan Lloyd: Why I decided to change my lifestyle

Those of you who watched episode 1 may remember that my VO2 max was measured at 52 when I started this journey a few weeks ago. As many pointed out in the comments, this is not a worrying number. In fact, it almost puts me in the elite category for my age and gender. However, it is a drop (>30%) from my last test in 2010, when I recorded a VO2 max of 74.6.

Knowing what I know now, I obviously want to slow this downfall, or hopefully even reverse it. I’ve gotten away with my lifestyle for the past 12 years because I started from such a high point, but I can’t afford to continue on this downward trajectory.

Unfortunately, however, it will eventually decline. If we maintain the same levels of exercise from now until the end of our lives, our VO2 max will decrease by 8-10% per decade, or about 1% per year. Therefore, the higher we can get it now, the higher it will be in later life. The taller you are in later life, the more likely you will still be able to climb stairs, ride a bike, pick up the grandkids or walk to the shops. I found this thought particularly motivating that I may no longer feel like competing, or even taking on a Strava segment (never say never), but I want to remain independent in my mobility for as long as I can. This process begins now.

The changes so far

What is that process like at the moment? Well, I’ve made several changes to my lifestyle since the first episode aired.

First, I managed to stop nicotine replacements almost four weeks ago. I was with them for four years. I did it cold turkey and… So far so good.

Read more: How bad is alcohol for cycling performance?

Second, I have reduced my alcohol consumption. I used to drink four to five nights a week, but now I only drink on Fridays and Saturdays. That’s probably a reduction of about 30 units a week for me, given that I tend to drink strong beers, and lots of them.

Third, I’ve moved! Since the first episode, I’ve been doing some sort of exercise every day. Nothing excessive, but something. Some cycling, some running, some rucking (walking and walking with a heavy backpack) and I’ve even joined a gym. I haven’t done anything too specific yet, I just wanted to get back into an exercise routine and make it a habit.

I’ve already seen some major changes. I have recorded my highest HRV and lowest resting heart rate since I started using a Whoop two and a half years ago. In the graphs below, you can see the effects alcohol has on both metrics.

On the other hand, I wanted to finish by saying that I was very surprised by the response to that first episode. I had reached a point in my life where I wanted to make some changes, so I thought I would document them, but I had no idea how many of you were in such a similar space. If you’ve started your own journey since then, I sincerely hope you’re doing well. Let me know in the comments how it went for you.

See you all soon for Episode 3. In the meantime, it’s time to see if I can stay on the straight and narrow while covering the Giro d’Italia. Wish me luck!

You can keep up with Dan’s progress here on the GCN website and webpageGCN YouTube Channel. Let us know in the comments below if Dan inspired you to make some lifestyle adjustments. We’d love to hear your stories too.