You can improve your vo2max when you know your max heartrate.
HR max can be calculated by using a chest strap monitor (most efficiently) and do a stress test (for example try give your all on a 5km run or hill repeats), or less accurate but accessable as most fancy watches use big data to estimate it and correct it over time.
Without such a watch , the formula “211-(age X 0.64)” gives you a close enough estimate to work with in most cases.
My watch does estimate my vo2max based on my hight, weight, performance and heartbeat during that performance (effort). This is not as accurate as a full lab test with oxigen mask but without all decimals the watch is accurate (enough)
When you know your max heartrate you can calculate your zones using the table below. That way you can do targetted training sessions. (For example for zone 4 and 5 you burn more fuel that you can restore during a marathon | if your heartrate is too high you will hit the wall, thus your best approach is to start in zone 3 and restore your fuel as you burn it and run your second half in zone 4)
My zones are set like this (to remove the overlap where you do both)
To increase vo2max you need to specifically train zone 5 (strong intervals or sprints) and seperately zone 4 (tempo runs, lactate threshold intervals). The zone 5 will result in higher speeds and the zone 4 work will determine how long you can hold that higher speed - combine both and you gradually increase vo2max!
TL/DR: HITT training with both short as well as longer intervals are the way to improve vo2max!
This is awesome, thank you for the detailed explanation!! Now I better understand what I've been doing in spin classes the last 5 years 😂
We do a "PTP" at the start of class, which is 2 minutes as hard and heavy as we can. This sets our "zone 5" for the ride (we call it red zone). My max heart rate varies 176-181 during that period (age 43).
Then during the ride we do various lengths in different zones (using colors instead of numbers). Usually 30 seonds to 3 minutes in length. I also do some HIIT training classes during the week.
So, perhaps I've been training to increase my VO2 max and didn't even realize it.
Thank you, I really appreciate this.