Vo2 Max no longer being measured

I have been using my epix gen 2 for a few months.

My only sport activities are hiking and skiing. Since I started using it, my vo2 max score has been updating roughly on a daily basis. To be clear, when I say "updating" I don't mean that the score changed (it has been stable at 48 for months) but that the watch indicated on the screen that the score had been taken recently (on that same day or the prior day).

This updating used to occur whether or not I engaged in a hiking (or skiing) activity: apparently, just casually walking around the city with the watch on was sufficient for the watch to take a new measurement.

Since last June 4 (over a month ago now), the watch has stopped updating the vo2 max score entirely even though I have continued wearing it as before (and went on a few hard hikes as well since). The screen on the watch continues to say "June 4" at the bottom of the vo2max screen since then.

Can anyone help?

Top Replies

Garmin-Laurie over 1 year ago in reply to schmjoe +2 verified

I am sorry to hear you are not receiving a VO2 max score. Unfortunately I can confirm, it is true that Hike is not an activity that qualifies for VO2 max. To receive a V02 max score, and have this update…
trux over 1 year ago in reply to 6148517 +1

The reason for no update of the VO₂max is that you use the Hiking activity. Vo₂max (apart of Running and Cycling with a power meter), calculates the VO₂max only at Walking activities. It can also calculate…
trux 7 months ago in reply to DennisF +1

DennisF said:
have you checked your HR zones are set up correctly?

In fact Garmin does not use the user-defined HR Zones for practically anything. What matters though a lot, is the Max HR. HR Zones are…

All Replies

0 6148517 over 1 year ago in reply to Garmin-Laurie

Thank you Laurie. Can the engineers then explain why vo2 max was not reported in my case since last June 4? I have sent you in a PM an example of an activity that meets the above requirements that I recorded since then and I can send many more examples if helpful.

0 trux over 1 year ago in reply to 6148517

You rather have to send them the all-day HR graphs, not the activity HR data, in your case. They are not identical. All-day HR comes in 2 minutes averages, hence it will be flatter than the activity HR graphs.

0 7017726 over 1 year ago in reply to schmjoe

Also cycling. I don't run but my VO2max gets updated regularly when cycling. I don't use a chest strap. However, I use an ebike that connects with the watch, so perhaps the watch uses the bike's power meter.

0 6148517 over 1 year ago in reply to trux

My heart rate has been above >80% for several stretches of more than 1 hour but happy to send Garmin whatever graphs or data they need to troubleshoot. As indicated initially, I opened a ticked more than two weeks ago and gave Garmin full access to my phone data but they have not reacted in any way unfortunately.

0 Garmin-Laurie over 1 year ago in reply to 6148517

6148517 said:
My heart rate has been above >80% for several stretches of more than 1 hour but happy to send Garmin whatever graphs or data they need to troubleshoot. As indicated initially, I opened a ticked more than two weeks ago and gave Garmin full access to my phone data but they have not reacted in any way unfortunately.

I have reached out to you via Private Message to explain why this is occurring for you.

0 6148517 over 1 year ago in reply to trux

trux said:
And as I wrote previously, the fix is simple - use the Walking activity instead of Hike.

I used Walking yesterday and recorded an 8hr 45min "walk", 20km in length, 2000 ascent, of which 2hr and 20 minutes in zone 4. Still no vol2 max measurement since last June 4. What more can I do?

0 trux over 1 year ago in reply to 6148517

6148517 said:
What more can I do?

You could try also the Run activity
If you did not yet, you could try resetting the watch to the factory defaults
Call the Support, or use the chat option if you did not get any reply when contacting them over email
Use a 3rd party CIQ app, or an external service for the VO₂max estimation
Just forget VO₂max at hiking. It is anyway a very inaccurate factor at activities such as hiking, and has no value for analyzing your fitness level

0 4526938 over 1 year ago

Similar story, epix gen 2 not showing vo2 max data since June, 2. I play tennis 3 times a week, walking 8-10 km per day, mountain biking, hiking, skiing. Last time I got vo2 max data was when i did 5 km run. The thing is this was my first 5km run recorded with the watch, and I had vo2 max data before, without running. Now I don’t. Obviously it is some software update that changed something, pretty sure if I go and do 5km I will get vo2 max data

0 Garmin-Laurie over 1 year ago in reply to 4526938

Hello 4526938

I am sorry to hear you are not seeing a VO2 max score. Since we do not have any know issues with this at a software level, I would love to help you further investigate this concern. For this, I will reach out to you directly via Private Message.

0 6148517 over 1 year ago in reply to 4526938

According to this article, if you run once, then you won't get another vo2 max reading from walking for another 30 days because running is considered more accurate and it will be overridden only if it goes stale. https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=HVMcrDvQ3m2xEFh1aVMbU8 Not sure if this explains your pattern (it does not explain mine, incidentally).