How VO2 Max is calculated?

First keep in mind that it will it take a week or two before you see a stable number for your Vo2Max score. Also since it is just an estimation instead of a direct measure it's best to use it as a trend line instead of an absolute measurement of fitness.

The Vo2Max calculation is highly dependent on your heart rate and the accuracy is dependent on having a good MaxHR number entered in your Garmin profile. By "good" I mean accurate for your physiology which more than likely not the same as the standard 220-age that will automatically be generated for you when you set up your account.

Vo2Max calculations, for running, look at the correlation between HR and pace so simply running the same route or distance faster won't necessarily result in a better result, in fact, if the recorded HR goes up at a greater rate than the pace does then it will drop.

If I understand it correctly, it doesn't take into account elevation changes while hiking. I do a daily hike with a 1,300' elevation change. My average heart rate is pretty high because of this but the V02 max calculation ignores this and thinks my HR is too high for a simple "walk" (on flat ground).

First keep in mind that it will it take a week or two before you see a stable number for your Vo2Max score. Also since it is just an estimation instead of a direct measure it's best to use it as a trend line instead of an absolute measurement of fitness.

The Vo2Max calculation is highly dependent on your heart rate and the accuracy is dependent on having a good MaxHR number entered in your Garmin profile. By "good" I mean accurate for your physiology which more than likely not the same as the standard 220-age that will automatically be generated for you when you set up your account.

Vo2Max calculations, for running, look at the correlation between HR and pace so simply running the same route or distance faster won't necessarily result in a better result, in fact, if the recorded HR goes up at a greater rate than the pace does then it will drop.

I was on 46 and i was sick for about 10 days and inactive, after it started again it fell to 41 and now every time is dropping even if am doing better scores.

how do i set up this max hr and where do i know my limits? from the details of the activity?

thanks

Garmin is using Firstbeat technology to calculate the Vo2max.

Here is the white paper of FirstBeat.

https://www.firstbeat.com/app/uploads/2015/10/white_paper_VO2max_11-11-20142.pdf

Best regards
Christian

I was on 46 and i was sick for about 10 days and inactive, after it started again it fell to 41 and now every time is dropping even if am doing better scores.

how do i set up this max hr and where do i know my limits? from the details of the activity?

thanks

On the Garmin mobile app go to the settings for your watch and select user settings and you'll find Heart Rate Zones there. Under that you can set your MaxHR and have zones set for you based on percentage of your Max.


My question though is what do you mean by "better scores"? As I said above simply running faster won't improve your Vo2Max value. The best way to improve that score, especially after being sick, is to run 80% or more of your runs at a pace where you can still hold a conversation with someone. Over time you'll either go faster at the same HR or the same pace with a lower HR both of which will show an improvement in fitness which will be reflected in your Vo2Max number.

Reading the link to Firstbeat that is posted above will explain it in more detail.

On the Garmin mobile app go to the settings for your watch and select user settings and you'll find Heart Rate Zones there. Under that you can set your MaxHR and have zones set for you based on percentage of your Max.


My question though is what do you mean by "better scores"? As I said above simply running faster won't improve your Vo2Max value. The best way to improve that score, especially after being sick, is to run 80% or more of your runs at a pace where you can still hold a conversation with someone. Over time you'll either go faster at the same HR or the same pace with a lower HR both of which will show an improvement in fitness which will be reflected in your Vo2Max number.

Reading the link to Firstbeat that is posted above will explain it in more detail.

Thanks for the answers and the details

well i read also the article and i fixed my maxhr in the mobile app but the vo2 max is still dropping.

i did as you said and not pressuring myself too much but it is still dropping by 1 every single activity.

whats wrong?

Don’t look at it for a week. Run 80% of your runs easy, 20% hard and see what it’s at then. Bet it won’t have gone down by the number of runs you’ve done.

Also it says that it counts 15min of the activity? Its an average of 15 minutes or the first 15 minutes?
because maybe i am doing better on the last 15min of one hour total acitvity.

any insight here will be helpfull.

A better way of saying that: Your run should have a duration of at least 15 minutes to ensure there is enough information to detect your VO2max.

To be honest, in most cases, I think 10 mins is probably enough, assuming that you aren't doing a bunch of stopping and starting - but more is better.

There's some good advice above.

I'd just add that it might be worth making sure you are wearing the device properly according to the instructions. If you're getting bad heart rate data from your sensor for some reason, like being worn loosely, too tight, on an unexpected part of the wrist, or bumping into something else as you run - then - by extension anything coming from the Firstbeat analytics engine (VO2max, Training Effects, etc) are going to be impacted.

Does the length of the run have an impact on the measurement? It seems like pace is a large piece of the equation. My pace is much quicker over 2 miles than it would be for a 6 mile run. I'm wondering if the measuring takes place during the first 'x' amount of time during a run or if the whole run's pace is used.