FRIEND’s 2022 update finds VO₂max falls about 13.5% per decade on the treadmill
How fast does VO₂max decline per decade?
The finding
Mean decline per decade over six decades was 13.5% (4.0 mL/kg/min) on the treadmill and 16.4% (4.3) on the cycle. The new treadmill standards are 1.5–4.6 mL/kg/min lower than the 2015 ones.
- Authors
- Kaminsky LA, Arena R, Myers J, et al.
- Published
- Mayo Clinic Proceedings 97(2):285–293 · 2022
- Evidence
- Read in the primary source; numbers checked.
- Source
- doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2021.08.020
How it was studied
22,379 tests from 34 US labs (1968–2021) in apparently healthy adults aged 20–89: 16,278 treadmill and 6,101 cycle tests.
The numbers
Treadmill values are higher than cycle values, so the test mode matters when comparing results.
What it does not show
Read in abstract only; the percentile table, including ages 80–89, could not be opened. Its percentiles are not quoted anywhere on this site until someone reads it.
What Longstanding does with it
The app’s 80+ VO₂max band is extrapolated by about 10% per decade from the 70s. This paper and Fleg 2005 suggest that is generous. Measured 80–89 data exist here and are the obvious replacement once read.