6 Ways to Improve Your Cardio Fitness VO2 Max | How To
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With Apple’s focus on health sensors and integration with its Health app, it’s not surprising that the Apple Watch offers a ton of ways to help get fit. Some buyers even purchase the Apple Watch with the intent of improving their cardio routine, and while stats like heart rate are pretty obvious, there’s another important stat that the Apple Watch can help you measure – VO2 max, or the highest amount of oxygen your body is capable of using during a workout session.
It’s an overall measure of how efficient your breathing is, how many red blood cells you have, how healthy your heart is, all the good stuff you want to improve with cardio. The Apple Watch tracks it all, and you can find the stat in the Health app, too – as long as you have an Apple Watch Series 3 or later with watchOS 7 or later.
Apple has a whole whitepaper on this process – the problem is that Apple doesn’t give many direct tips on how to actually improve your VO2 max level. We’re fixing that now. Continue reading to browse the top ways to bump those numbers up.
Warm Up
VO2 max takes a lot of effort to improve. You’ll want to push your body and heart very hard to improve it, getting to around 90 to 95% of your maximum heart rate. That means it’s vital to start with a good warm-up before any targeted activity. Take a good 10 to 15 minutes of jogging, doing burpees, some kind of lighter activity to get your muscles warmed up and your heart rate on the rise before working on your VO2 max. Otherwise, you could really hurt yourself, and that ruins the point.
Remember to Rest
Yep, rest is also important. After a VO2 max activity, you need to give your heart – and the rest of your body – time to cool off for a bit. This will get you prepped for the next round. How much time can vary, but at least a few minutes is a good idea. When you’re really hitting your VO2 max regularly, you may want to go for a 2:1 ratio for your recovery period: make sure it’s at least twice as long as your activity took.
3-Minute Sprints
This is a great VO2 activity because it’s easy to understand, you probably already know how to sprint, and as long as there is a flat stretch of street or track nearby (you don’t want an incline for this one). As a general rule, you want to sprint as if you were trying to win a 1-mile race. You should be totally out of breath by the time you finish, but not ready to pass out.
If you’re fit and you’re feeling really good about your sprints, you can start bumping your times up toward four minutes instead. Just remember to get your cooldown period in, too!
There is no set amount of times you have to do this when you are first beginning, but it needs to be more than one. Aim for three to four if you don’t have any experience with this type of activity. Work up to half a dozen reps, and make it a goal to eventually reach 10. By that time, you’ll have a good idea of what your body can handle.
Run Uphill
That’s it: Find a steep hill in your area, or set a treadmill to an incline (try to start around 4-5 degrees in the beginning), and run really hard until you reach the top or a couple of minutes pass. The great part about doing this out in the real world is that the time it takes you to walk or jog back to your starting place should be perfect for your cooldown period, and then you’re ready to do it again. Again, several reps here is a good goal for first-timers, but you'll want to push to something like 10.
HIIT Workouts
If you want to combine your VO2 max training with more muscle-building activities, then find a HIIT (high-intensity interval training) program you like. There are endless combinations, usually involving bodyweight/lightweight exercises, often with some quick sprints through in. The goal is to do them all in quick succession until you’re totally beat. Squats and chest-presses are common components. You can even add in time on a bike or battle ropes if you’re fast enough. This article has a lot more info.
Lose Excess Weight
VO2 max is generally measured against your body weight. In other words, your overall efficiency will go up if you lose weight while maintaining the same VO2 max. Obviously, you don’t want to get your body fat percentage down too low, which is both unhealthy and unsustainable. But if you’ve got some significant room to lose weight, you can start making improvements to your VO2 max by starting to diet and cutting back on unnecessary foods, or replacing them with leaner alternatives like meal shakes.