VO2max declining while fitter than ever

Hi all,

Hoping for someone to explain this to me. I’ve been wearing an Apple Watch for about 3 years now, and according to apple health my vo2 max has always been around 38-41 (which is below average).

I (now) am 29 years old (almost 30) and quite active. There have been some periods over the past years in which I didn’t train at all, but normally I would be doing weight training 3 x times a week and occasionally a bit of running. Also, I have 2 dogs so I walk at least 2 times a day.

Now the weird part starts: on nov 1 2024 I decided I was gonna take on a 90 day fitness challenge: a sub 25 min 5K. I started weight training again for 2 times a week, along with running 2 times a week. I’ve never been fitter, but my VO2max has risen a bit (before first declining) and over the past 3 weeks it’s declining again. How is this even possible? What kind of algorithm do they use to calculate VO2max?

It just feels weird since you would expect VO2 to improve. What else do I need to do (or what kind of training method do I need to implement) so that I can improve my VO2max?

TLDR: VO2max declining but fitter than ever and regularly training (4x times a week, running/weightlifting) what do I need to do to improve VO2?

Hi all,

Hoping for someone to explain this to me. I’ve been wearing an Apple Watch for about 3 years now, and according to apple health my vo2 max has always been around 38-41 (which is below average).

I (now) am 29 years old (almost 30) and quite active. There have been some periods over the past years in which I didn’t train at all, but normally I would be doing weight training 3 x times a week and occasionally a bit of running. Also, I have 2 dogs so I walk at least 2 times a day.

Now the weird part starts: on nov 1 2024 I decided I was gonna take on a 90 day fitness challenge: a sub 25 min 5K. I started weight training again for 2 times a week, along with running 2 times a week. I’ve never been fitter, but my VO2max has risen a bit (before first declining) and over the past 3 weeks it’s declining again. How is this even possible? What kind of algorithm do they use to calculate VO2max?

It just feels weird since you would expect VO2 to improve. What else do I need to do (or what kind of training method do I need to implement) so that I can improve my VO2max?

TLDR: VO2max declining but fitter than ever and regularly training (4x times a week, running/weightlifting) what do I need to do to improve VO2?