Reference charts
VO2 Max Chart by Age and Sex
VO2 max is the most oxygen your body can use during all-out exercise, in millilitres per kilogram of body weight per minute (mL/kg/min). The percentiles below come from the FRIEND registry: 7,783 maximal treadmill tests with measured gas exchange in US adults aged 20 to 79 without cardiovascular disease. Enter your number to see where it falls for your age and sex.
Updated . Educational reference, not medical advice.
Interactive VO2 max percentile chart
Pick sex and age, enter a value, and see where it falls in the reference population. Measured by cardiopulmonary exercise testing on a treadmill. Watch estimates are not the same measurement.
40 mL/kg/min is about the 41st percentile for men aged 30–39: higher than roughly 41% of that group.
| Age | 5th | 10th | 25th | 50th | 75th | 90th | 95th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20–29 | 29 | 32.1 | 40.1 | 48 | 55.2 | 61.8 | 66.3 |
| 30–39 | 27.2 | 30.2 | 35.9 | 42.4 | 49.2 | 56.5 | 59.8 |
| 40–49 | 24.2 | 26.8 | 31.9 | 37.8 | 45 | 52.1 | 55.6 |
| 50–59 | 20.9 | 22.8 | 27.1 | 32.6 | 39.7 | 45.6 | 50.7 |
| 60–69 | 17.4 | 19.8 | 23.7 | 28.2 | 34.5 | 40.3 | 43 |
| 70–79 | 16.3 | 17.1 | 20.4 | 24.4 | 30.4 | 36.6 | 39.7 |
Source: Kaminsky et al., Mayo Clinic Proceedings 2015 (FRIEND registry, 7,783 maximal treadmill tests, US adults without cardiovascular disease). Educational reference only, not medical advice.
How to read this chart
Each row is an age decade. The dark line is the median (50th percentile): half of the people tested in that group were above it and half below. The darker band covers the middle half of people (25th to 75th percentile) and the lighter band covers the 5th to 95th.
In FRIEND, the median fell from 48.0 to 24.4 mL/kg/min in men and from 37.6 to 18.3 in women between their 20s and their 70s, roughly 10% per decade. Men's values are higher at every age, so always compare yourself with your own sex and age group.
These are measured values from a cardiopulmonary exercise test, where a mask records the oxygen you breathe in and out while the treadmill gets harder until you stop. A number from a watch or a fitness app is an estimate of that test, and the two can differ by several units for one person.
What is a good VO2 max?
There is no official cut-off for a "good" VO2 max. The most useful answer is your percentile for your age and sex. A 45-year-old man at 45.0 mL/kg/min sits at the 75th percentile in FRIEND, which means he tested higher than about three in four men his age. A 45-year-old woman reaches the 75th percentile at 32.4.
Percentiles also line up with outcome research. Mandsager and colleagues followed 122,007 adults referred for a treadmill test at one academic medical center for a median 8.4 years. People in the bottom quarter of fitness for their age and sex had 5.04 times the adjusted risk of death of the top 2.3%, and being below versus above the median carried a hazard ratio of 1.41, similar to smoking (1.41) or diabetes (1.40) in the same cohort. That study estimated fitness from treadmill workload rather than gas analysis, and it shows association, not cause.
Why other VO2 max charts show different numbers
Many charts online reuse Cooper Institute tables, which estimate VO2 max from treadmill time instead of measuring it. The FRIEND paper printed both side by side. For men in their 20s the Cooper median is 43.9 against 48.0 in FRIEND, while for men in their 70s Cooper's median is higher (30.9 against 24.4). Category labels such as "excellent" or "superior" depend on which table a chart copied, so a percentile from one stated source is easier to interpret.
How accurate is a smartwatch VO2 max?
A 2022 meta-analysis of 14 validation studies (Molina-Garcia et al., INTERLIVE network) found that wearables using exercise data averaged close to lab values across groups (mean bias -0.09 mL/kg/min) but individual readings ranged from about 9.9 below to 9.7 above the lab result. Devices relying on resting data overestimated by 2.17 on average, with limits of agreement from -13.07 to +17.41. A watch number is fine for following your own trend over months; a single reading can land in a different percentile band from a lab test.
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CC BY 4.0ChatPPG compiled this data. You can copy, adapt and republish it, including in articles, slides, papers and AI tools, as long as you credit ChatPPG and link to this page. Please also cite the original studies for any number you use.
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Frequently asked questions
What is a good VO2 max for my age?
Compare your number with the median for your age and sex. In the FRIEND registry the median is 48.0 mL/kg/min for men in their 20s, 37.8 for men in their 40s and 28.2 for men in their 60s; for women it is 37.6, 26.7 and 20.0. Above the median means you tested higher than half of that group; the 75th percentile is often used as a high-fitness marker.
What is an average VO2 max?
In FRIEND (7,783 US adults tested on a treadmill with gas analysis), the mean was 37.9 mL/kg/min for men and 27.6 for women across ages 20 to 79. It falls with age: men in their 20s averaged 47.6 and men in their 70s 25.8.
How accurate is the VO2 max on my watch?
On average close, individually loose. A 2022 meta-analysis found exercise-based wearable estimates had near-zero average bias but limits of agreement of roughly plus or minus 10 mL/kg/min against lab tests. Use it to follow your own trend rather than to place yourself precisely on this chart.
Is this chart for people with heart disease?
No. FRIEND's reference values here exclude people with cardiovascular disease. Separate FRIEND reference standards exist for people with heart disease, and a clinician should interpret any exercise test done for medical reasons.
References
- Kaminsky LA, Arena R, Myers J, et al. Reference standards for cardiorespiratory fitness measured with cardiopulmonary exercise testing: data from FRIEND. Mayo Clin Proc. 2015;90(11):1515-1523. doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2015.07.026
- Kaminsky LA, Arena R, Myers J. Updated reference standards for cardiorespiratory fitness measured with CPX: data from FRIEND. Mayo Clin Proc. 2022;97(2):285-293. doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2021.08.020
- Mandsager K, Harb S, Cremer P, et al. Association of cardiorespiratory fitness with long-term mortality among adults undergoing exercise treadmill testing. JAMA Netw Open. 2018;1(6):e183605. doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2018.3605
- Molina-Garcia P, Notbohm HL, Schumann M, et al. Validity of estimating the maximal oxygen consumption by consumer wearables: a systematic review with meta-analysis and expert statement of the INTERLIVE network. Sports Med. 2022;52:1577-1597. doi.org/10.1007/s40279-021-01639-y