Vo2 Max falling since change from Fenix 5s to Fenix 6

Last Dec., I upgraded from a Garmin Fenix 5s to a Fenix 6s Pro Solar and my VO2 max plummeted immediately from Superior to Poor. My activity level has remained constant, yet I cannot get my VO2 to budge. What is going on, Garmin?

blind said:

I have manually set HR zones in the device settings

The algorithm uses maxHR, not zones.

mines dropped from 57 to 49. I have gave up on it now. Even if its correct, I don't care any longer lol

Interesting article on the much older (79-91) (apologies for the long URL)

https://watermark.silverchair.com/310255.pdf?token=AQECAHi208BE49Ooan9kkhW_Ercy7Dm3ZL_9Cf3qfKAc485ysgAAAsMwggK_BgkqhkiG9w0BBwagggKwMIICrAIBADCCAqUGCSqGSIb3DQEHATAeBglghkgBZQMEAS4wEQQM7YDb--J8JLMe89YPAgEQgIICdhRkV9bYhI40VJNZsxG2cVYhqWGWsJKBWupBjgAK0FDG_0jYDMgpP5K0im6y4WKEXnHQiVCHJp7X99NfWz2JXl2iMcW_wgIoQGXKftHcg4JDanBgeptaScrkni86pSAwrgiIpvZw4oPiokTPbIGqmCaUUDkF_bzK-_7fe3IAiKATLeJeSAAvPhgUgh6uH6iJy4Nq3JoAIWuApd2EgkohbD0VYOY7cnZep3y8q0LlcRq3CGDTHPF8TtW_oCu_MvWomJTRjzU8ITTSBpL440zxiXH0XzhNq1Ooq05jH8ZQEOzG-Oh7tgIGb_phTepgFtew_NMjMG38woBYoMHzGAYoelwJ1rTPqV_w-JBV_rxtEomhdP0CiTmtoOBpjL0tyAzD0hZYDoIuCMdp6Eyitq0BB5Ce6zHekyshmE0ozjFnkiThKa5qvGHjuISqWLU3-eig2CIDLkaraIfHUgXdciEFpyAjFQCbjDCyVethHH1PwmWpFlc-KCzSwiOmSGafSe__ID8uPPrVVSGDwOhKKFtAH1JT03PAUctT-rmIMqm5GDiglGtCw3ZX42J0ThYUlKWZHxT7JghkfGnQufYhrhmH9WbeYulXab6RqhS3MiuvwmJQPE3pRZshdbXf4G6tGuLCcZhJ7Ou6fWha_Wmm9qS6zWsoYOjggQAiosBFhgyCqeWHR6OGYNbvDtsL6H7xN4eYdZsGLf_pPCm05XE55kYJY4DvpVkJpDkMxXUodN-ZWzr59YdSTjPzgWp-Gcy74Fmz_f6N75MLYBgBX1Fps2fM7AWsgB_d8X6DUnkFlqxaPmGRKavrfjHrnkRk73HrHj4BlyBvsoQSig


15% in VO2 observed for women, not for the men though in this study. As the article states, "indicates the ability to respond to a progressive aerobic training program is maintained in  women even in their 80's". They discuss why they dont see it in men, noticing the lack of data in the age range here, but notice they did react positively to training, - although they do point out that other studies have shown improvement in vo2 up to 72 years old. They talk about one possibility is that the men were already inherently more fit then the women's group.

Unless you reverse engineer the algorithm, which I doubt anyone here has done, none of us know how it's calculated.

I've always thought it was overstated, guy in his 50's, fitness level at 18, uh, yeah....  But, my ego appreciated it.

My guess has been that the patch released last year around July / August, which is when mine went downhill, attempted to fix the calculation.  I wish they'd been clear about it, assuming they did that, and it wasn't some sort of age related quirk in the algorithm.

Sign up for Runalyze (it's free :) ), import your historical data and see how it looks. Runalyze's data (to me anyway) seems to be more representative of each individual activity rather than (what seems to me) a trend based approach from Garmin.

See if Runalyze shows a similar decline. May be worth looking at your average HR per run at the time, I find that a good proxy value to look at with regards to VO2

"guy in his 50's, fitness level at 18, uh, yeah....  "

Why not? When I was 42, I was lab-tested at VO2max 62, and was told I was in better shape than most athletes half my age, even though I've never been anything but a recreational runner (now cyclist). In my fifties, I ran a 10K in under 39 minutes. Can your average 18-year-old do that?

Those results make sense if Runalzye calculates VO2 max for the activity while Garmin extrapolates VO2 max from heart rate during activity. If so, you would expect Runalyze to lag behind on easy efforts, and approach the Garmin calculation on a hard workout.