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VO2 Max Norms: 7,783 Treadmill Tests, Not Wearable Estimates

October 15, 2026
VO2 Max Norms: 7,783 Treadmill Tests, Not Wearable Estimates

The median VO2max for adults in their 20s is about 48.0 mL/kg/min for men and 37.6 mL/kg/min for women, measured directly on a treadmill. The full percentile table below lets you see exactly where your measured score falls against people your age and sex.

TL;DR:

  • Estimated scores can misplace you on a measured percentile chart; a FRIEND prediction model had a standard error of 6.6 mL/kg/min.
  • Treadmill results run higher than cycling results, so match your score to a reference set for the same mode and note the lab protocol.
  • FRIEND norms describe apparently healthy adults without known cardiovascular disease; scores below the 10th percentile with symptoms warrant discussion with a physician.
  • Rest 24 to 48 hours before testing, avoid intense exercise the prior day, and arrive hydrated to reduce factors that can depress your result.
  • U.S. tests typically cost $150 to $600, with fees varying by provider, consultation, equipment, and bundled services such as resting metabolic rate testing.
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Table of Contents

What VO2max measures and how results are reported

VO2max is the highest rate at which your body can take in, transport, and use oxygen during maximal exercise. It's reported in milliliters of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute (mL/kg/min), a unit that normalizes the raw oxygen consumption number against your mass so athletes of different body weights can be compared fairly.

You'll see two related terms: VO2max and VO2peak. VO2max technically means oxygen consumption has plateaued despite more work, while VO2peak is the highest value reached during a test that may stop before a true plateau occurs, often due to leg fatigue or motivation limits rather than cardiopulmonary ceiling. In practice, many reported "VO2max" numbers are actually VO2peak values, and that distinction matters when you're comparing your result to a reference table.

The gold standard for measuring either is cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPX), which uses a mask to directly measure the oxygen and carbon dioxide in your breath while you work to exhaustion on a treadmill or bike. Estimation methods, like submaximal step tests or wearable algorithms, calculate VO2max from heart rate and workload without ever measuring gas exchange, which introduces error.

Runner wearing a breathing mask during treadmill testing

Because the number is divided by body weight, anything that changes your weight (dehydration, recent meals, a change in body composition) shifts the final mL/kg/min figure even if your absolute oxygen consumption stayed identical. That's why repeated tests under consistent conditions, rather than a single reading, give you the clearest trend over time.

A quality CPX report includes markers that confirm you actually reached a true maximal effort:

  • Respiratory exchange ratio (RER) as an objective marker of effort.
  • A VO2 plateau, where oxygen consumption stops rising despite increasing workload.
  • Near-maximal heart rate relative to your age-predicted value.
  • Volitional exhaustion, meaning you stopped because you couldn't continue, not because the protocol ended early.

Without these markers, a reported score may be a submaximal estimate dressed up as a maximal one.

FRIEND treadmill percentiles: age- and sex-specific reference table

The most widely cited normative data for directly measured VO2max comes from the Fitness Registry and the Importance of Exercise National Database (FRIEND). The registry compiled 7,783 maximal treadmill CPX tests from adults aged 20 to 79 without known cardiovascular disease, verifying effort with RER thresholds before including a test in the normative pool.

The table below shows the 50th percentile, treadmill-measured VO2max in mL/kg/min by decade and sex, as reported by FRIEND.

These are medians, the point where half the tested population scored higher and half scored lower. The full FRIEND dataset also reports percentile bands (10th, 25th, 75th, 90th) within each age and sex group, so a woman at the 75th percentile is meaningfully different from one at the 25th even though both might be described loosely as "average" by a less granular chart.

A few things to keep in mind when you compare your own number to this table. First, these are treadmill values specifically. The registry's expanded analysis, which pooled 15,045 tests through 2021, found that mean VO2peak measured on a treadmill runs higher than mean VO2peak measured on a cycle ergometer, because treadmill walking and running recruit more total muscle mass than cycling does. If your test was done on a bike, a direct comparison to this treadmill table will understate your relative fitness.

Second, sample size and population matter. FRIEND excludes people with known cardiovascular disease, so these percentiles describe apparently healthy adults rather than the general population including those with diagnosed heart or lung conditions. If you're using this table to benchmark against "typical" fitness for your age, that's the right population. If you're managing a diagnosed condition, a clinician interpreting your result against disease-specific reference standards is more useful than this general table.

Third, protocol differences inside treadmill testing still exist. A Bruce protocol test and a ramped treadmill protocol can produce slightly different maximal values for the same person because of how quickly workload increases and how much the test relies on incline versus speed. None of this invalidates the table; it just means your specific number should be read alongside the protocol used to generate it, which a quality lab report will state.

How to interpret your percentile: what 'above average' and 'below average' mean

A percentile tells you where you rank relative to other people of your age and sex who were tested the same way. It's a relative position, not a medical verdict. Sitting at the 40th percentile for your age group doesn't mean your fitness is a problem; it means four out of ten people like you scored lower and six scored higher.

That framing matters because people often treat the 50th percentile as a line between "fit" and "unfit," when it's really just the midpoint of a wide, overlapping distribution. A man near the middle of his age group's distribution is close to his peers' center of mass, not meaningfully exceptional or concerning.

Higher percentiles do track with distinct fitness profiles, though:

  • The 75th percentile for a given age and sex indicates a score higher than that of most people in the reference group.
  • The 90th percentile indicates a score higher than that of most people in the reference group.
  • Competitive endurance athletes often score well above the 90th percentile for their age group, sometimes by a wide margin, reflecting years of specific training adaptation rather than general activity.

Only about 1 in 10 people in a given age and sex category reach the 90th percentile on directly measured treadmill testing, which gives you a sense of how much sustained training separates that tier from the recreationally active middle of the distribution.

On the lower end, a result well below the 10th percentile for your age and sex, especially alongside symptoms like unusual breathlessness, chest discomfort, or dizziness during the test, is worth discussing with a physician rather than filing away as a fitness number to improve on your own. A single low score isn't a diagnosis, but it's a reasonable prompt for a conversation, particularly if it's a sharp drop from a previous test or paired with new symptoms.

How VO2max changes with age and differs by sex

The FRIEND registry's decade-by-decade data makes the aging pattern explicit. Median VO2max for men drops from 48.0 mL/kg/min in the 20s to 24.4 mL/kg/min in the 70s, while women decline from 37.6 to 18.3 mL/kg/min over the same span.

The registry describes this as an approximately 9 to 10% decline per decade, a rate that holds reasonably steady from the 20s through the 70s in the FRIEND cohort, though a separate expanded FRIEND analysis spanning additional test modes and years reported a somewhat lower decline of roughly 7 to 9% per decade depending on the specific cohort and testing mode included.

The physiological drivers behind this decline are well established in general terms even though FRIEND itself is a measurement registry rather than a mechanistic study. Maximum heart rate falls with age, which lowers peak cardiac output, the volume of blood the heart can pump per minute during maximal effort. Skeletal muscle also loses some oxidative capacity and mitochondrial density over time, particularly in people who become less active, which reduces how efficiently tissue extracts and uses the oxygen that is delivered to it. Reduced habitual physical activity compounds both effects, since inactivity accelerates the decline beyond what aging alone would produce.

Because VO2max is expressed per kilogram of body weight, differences in typical body composition between men and women show up directly in the normalized number even when absolute oxygen consumption differences are smaller.

It's worth repeating that these are population medians from a specific, generally healthy, treadmill-tested cohort. Norms built from a cycling-tested population, a population with a different average training status, or a population at altitude would shift the numbers somewhat, which is why the mode and sample behind any reference table deserves attention before you treat it as universal.

How VO2max changes with age and differs by sex — overview diagram

Testing modalities and accuracy: CPX vs estimates, treadmill vs cycle

Directly measured cardiopulmonary exercise testing, breathing into a mask while gas exchange is analyzed in real time, remains the reference standard against which every other method is judged. Estimated VO2max, derived from workload, heart rate, age, sex, and sometimes weight and height, is useful for a rough number but carries real error.

A reference-equation study using FRIEND registry data built a regression model predicting VO2max from age, sex, weight, height, and test mode, and reported a standard error of estimate of about 6.6 mL/kg/min. Other estimation approaches based on submaximal workload also have meaningful errors, which vary by protocol and population. Either way, an estimated score can easily place you in the wrong percentile band on a reference chart built from directly measured values.

Exercise mode changes the number too. Treadmill testing, which recruits the large muscles of the legs, hips, and core through walking or running, consistently produces higher measured VO2peak than cycle ergometer testing, where the quadriceps do most of the work and tend to fatigue locally before the cardiovascular system is maximally taxed. The expanded FRIEND analysis confirmed this treadmill-versus-cycle gap and provided separate percentile sets by mode for that reason.

A few practical markers help you judge whether a lab report reflects a genuine maximal test:

  • RER as an objective effort measure, interpreted alongside other signs of maximal effort.
  • A VO2 plateau on the gas-exchange curve despite rising workload.
  • Heart rate near your age-predicted maximum, though this alone is an imperfect signal given individual variation.
  • A clear reason for stopping, volitional exhaustion rather than an equipment or protocol cutoff.

Lab calibration and protocol selection also affect accuracy: practical testing guidance notes that heart-rate-based estimation carries meaningful error and that proper equipment calibration, appropriate protocol choice, and objective effort measures like RER materially improve how trustworthy a reported number is.

Pro Tip: Ask your testing provider which mode (treadmill or cycle) and which percentile table they use to interpret your score, since a treadmill number compared against a cycle-based table, or vice versa, can misplace you by a full percentile band.

Practical steps: where to get tested, typical costs, and how to prepare

Directly measured VO2max testing is available through university exercise physiology labs, hospital-based cardiopulmonary labs, and private performance testing centers. Costs and included services vary by provider type, with university and research labs often priced lower and performance labs sometimes bundling VO2max with other metabolic or body composition testing.

Across the U.S., a typical VO2max test costs between $150 and $600, with the range driven by whether the test includes a physician or exercise physiologist consultation, the equipment used, and whether it's bundled with other assessments like resting metabolic rate testing.

To get a reliable result:

  1. Book with a provider that uses CPX with expired-gas analysis, not a submaximal estimate, if you want a result comparable to the FRIEND percentile tables above.
  2. Rest for 24 to 48 hours before testing and avoid intense training the day before, since residual fatigue lowers peak performance and skews the result lower than your true capacity.
  3. Avoid a heavy meal in the hours before testing and arrive well hydrated, since both affect comfort and gas exchange measurement during maximal effort.
  4. Bring a list of current medications, particularly anything affecting heart rate (like beta blockers), since these change how your results should be interpreted.
  5. Confirm the test mode in advance (treadmill or cycle) so you know which reference table applies to your result.

Our preparation checklist for VO2max testing walks through these steps in more detail if you want to double check readiness before a scheduled appointment.

VO2max norms variations by population groups

The FRIEND medians describe a generally healthy, mixed-activity adult population, not any single fitness tier. Within that broad population, the spread between percentiles is wide precisely because training status varies enormously from person to person at every age.

Sedentary adults may score lower in the age- and sex-specific distribution, reflecting reduced cardiac output and lower muscle oxidative capacity from inactivity. Recreationally active adults who train regularly may score around the middle or higher in the age- and sex-specific distribution. Competitive endurance athletes, including distance runners, cyclists, and cross-country skiers, may score highly for their age and sex, since years of specific aerobic training produce cardiovascular and muscular adaptations that general population norms may not capture at the high end.

This spread is also why a single "good" or "bad" label applied to a raw VO2max number without age and sex context is close to meaningless. The same VO2max score can mean different things depending on a person's age and sex. Reading your result against the decade- and sex-matched row in the table above, rather than a flat threshold, is the only way the number tells you anything useful about where you actually stand.

Factors influencing VO2max beyond age and sex

Training status is the single largest modifiable factor, which can be effectively monitored using adaptive protocols like HRV for Training that adjust to your body's readiness. Regular aerobic training increases stroke volume, capillary density, and mitochondrial content in working muscle, all of which raise measured VO2max over weeks to months of consistent work.

Genetics sets a meaningful share of your starting point and your ceiling for improvement; some people respond to the same training program with substantially larger VO2max gains than others, a well-documented but individually unpredictable pattern in exercise physiology research. Altitude affects testing too: acute exposure to elevation reduces available oxygen partial pressure, which lowers measured VO2max compared to a sea-level test on the same person, while chronic altitude training can produce long-term adaptations that partially offset that effect once a person returns to sea level.

Body composition plays a direct mathematical role, since VO2max is expressed per kilogram of total body weight. Two people with identical absolute oxygen consumption but different body fat percentages will show different mL/kg/min scores, with the leaner person's number reading higher. Smoking, certain medications (especially beta blockers, which blunt heart rate response), and underlying cardiovascular or pulmonary conditions can all lower measured VO2max independent of training status, which is part of why FRIEND's normative tables exclude people with known cardiovascular disease.

VO2max, health outcomes, and performance benchmarks

Cardiorespiratory fitness, the capacity VO2max measures, reflects the combined function of your heart, lungs, blood, and skeletal muscle working together to deliver and use oxygen. The American College of Sports Medicine describes cardiorespiratory fitness as the integrated ability of these systems, and ACSM commentary has characterized it as a powerful predictor of broader health outcomes, one reason FRIEND's measured reference values are preferred for interpretation over workload-derived estimates.

For athletic performance, VO2max sets a ceiling on aerobic capacity but doesn't fully determine race results on its own; factors like lactate threshold (the intensity at which lactate begins accumulating faster than it can be cleared) and running or cycling economy also shape how that aerobic ceiling translates into speed or power. A runner and a cyclist with identical VO2max scores can post very different competitive results depending on where their lactate threshold sits relative to that ceiling, which is part of why some athletes prioritize threshold training alongside maximal aerobic capacity. Our explainer on lactate threshold versus VO2max covers how the two metrics complement each other for anyone training toward a specific race distance.

Measured norms matter in a testing landscape full of estimates

Most of the VO2max numbers people see day to day come from a wrist-worn device estimating effort from heart rate and motion, not from a mask measuring actual gas exchange. Those estimates have a place for tracking week-to-week trends, but they aren't built to be compared against population percentile tables derived from CPX testing, and treating them as equivalent is where most confusion about "good" or "bad" scores comes from.

We think the FRIEND registry's directly measured, decade- and sex-specific percentiles are the right benchmark for anyone who wants an honest answer to where their aerobic fitness stands, precisely because the testing behind them was verified for effort and reported consistently across thousands of adults. When we point people toward CPX testing locations, it's because a measured number on a recognized reference scale tells you something a wearable estimate can't. We keep our listings and cost information current as providers and pricing change.

— Erik

Finding a lab that runs true cardiopulmonary exercise testing, rather than a submaximal estimate, is the main hurdle for most people who want a result they can actually compare to the percentile table above. Our DEXA Scans platform lists verified testing locations across the country where you can compare cash pricing before you book.

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Many of the clinics in our directory offer VO2max testing as a standalone appointment or combined with a DEXA body composition scan and resting metabolic rate testing in a single visit, which is worth asking about if you're trying to build a fuller picture of your fitness in one trip. Pricing, protocol, and test mode (treadmill versus cycle) vary by location, so confirm those details directly with the provider before you book.

If body composition or bone density is also on your list, our body composition scan guide covers what that test adds alongside a VO2max result. Start by comparing verified VO2max testing locations near you and check the provider's protocol before confirming an appointment.

FAQ

What is a good VO2 max score for males?

A good VO2max for an adult male depends heavily on age: at the 50th percentile, men in their 20s measure about 48.0 mL/kg/min, while men in their 60s median around 28.2 mL/kg/min. Scoring above the 75th percentile for your specific age group, rather than a single flat number, is the more accurate way to describe "good."

What was Lance Armstrong's VO2 max score?

Reported VO2max figures for elite competitive cyclists are not part of the peer-reviewed FRIEND reference dataset this article is built on, so we don't have a sourced figure to cite here. Elite endurance cyclists as a group typically test well above the 90th percentile for their age and sex on directly measured testing.

What is cardiovascular endurance?

Cardiovascular endurance is the capacity of your heart, lungs, and blood vessels to deliver oxygen to working muscle during sustained exercise, and VO2max is the primary direct measurement of that capacity. The American College of Sports Medicine describes this as an integrated function involving cardiac output, lung function, blood oxygen-carrying capacity, and muscle oxygen use.

Which famous athletes have the best VO2 max?

Elite endurance athletes, particularly cross-country skiers, distance runners, and professional cyclists, are generally reported to have among the highest VO2max scores recorded, often well above the 90th percentile tables built from general population testing. Specific individual scores for named athletes aren't part of the peer-reviewed registry data this article draws on, so we don't cite exact figures here.

How much does a VO2 max test cost?

A directly measured VO2max test in the U.S. typically costs between $150 and $600, depending on whether it's performed at a university lab, hospital, or private performance testing center and whether it's bundled with other assessments. You can compare cash pricing at verified testing locations before booking.

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