Increased v02 max by 2.7-3 points this July

Towards the end of June, I started doing some v02 max workouts in response to finding out on June 8th that my v02 max stayed the same despite losing 7 pounds of body fat so far. It wasn’t a smooth start; in fact, it was frustrating at the beginning, but I kept iterating on the variables and ended up surprising myself in the end in a good way. I have decided to group 2-3 screenshots at a time and describe the workouts that led to the results and the anaylsis of the results. I would for the most part do the v02 max workouts before the screenshot of my 2 mile run at around zone 3 at average using the Suuncto watch. Towards the end of this blog, I will describe what I have learned throughout this month and what I will keep implementing.

Before I start sharing the screenshots, I’d like to point out that I decided to buy the Suunto smart watch because of a YouTube video that was about the guy comparing all the watches to figure out which was was the closest to his recent V02 max results in the lab and it turns out the Suuncto was the most accurate and I paid around 350-400 dollars at REI. Anyway, here’s the link to the video if you’d like to check it out.

Even though the first set improved, it didn’t make a difference. Perhaps the reason why the first workout increased the point by +.1, and not the others was because the intensity was high enough, and maybe it was the extra minute that made the difference. The mile trial on (7/1/26 – workout 2) didn’t make a difference in the v02 max despite the intensity of it. I didn’t bother screenshotting it since it didn’t occur to me until typing this that I was in zone 5, which is the ideal zone for v02 max workout stimulus to induce cardiac adaptations, for 6 minutes which is more than the previous 2. Yet, it wasn’t enough. I figure after looking at this that the only option was to reluctantly increase the volume and do 3 sets for once. All in all, Workout #1 was the only one that increased the v02 point by +.1.

This set of 3 workouts is what I would like to call the ‘Happy Accident’. (1) The first workout produced the highest results even though the first set was not pushed to full fatigue due to me tripping and played it safe to then use the rails. It was till I started to do a few more workouts that I realized that I had to push myself more than I imagined on the stairmaster. When implementing the simple approach of trying to improve the Set #1 time, the resistance or obstacles of me trying to accomplish it was not pleasant as a fair warning. When I commited to doing 4-6 minutes, I would start to feel the lactic acid sensation, but still able to keep the cadence around set 2-3 and unfortunely that isn’t the sign that you’ve pushed the limit. What I found out is that you’re truly at the limit when you feel like lifting each leg is like lifting it out of quicksand or like doing a 5 rep max set. Another clue of when your approaching the limit is when your upper glute starts to feel sore or worn out for a lack of a better term. Probably because the upper glute (external hip rotation) is a stabilizer. (2) Even though I pushed the first set harder and did my best on the 2 airbike sets, it only yielded +.2 points. (3) This workout yielded +.3 points for a few reasons that I can think of. a) The first set was truly pushed to its limit the way I just had talked about. 2) I implemented rowing which I noticed for the 2nd time that I felt more of the stress on my heart than my legs which I figure that was the point. I figured it out from these workouts that rowing is a better stimulus than stairmaster because the quads are less of a bottleneck in rowing than in stairmaster, so when rowing, the heart has to work harder than the quads.

When I read the 50.1 after the run, it caught me off guard, but realized quickly that the heat could be compromizing the results. The second workout was the same as the first one and so far I can assume the each of those workouts will yield +.3 for now.

I was so glad that I waited till around 11pm to check the v02 max on July 19th for it to read 51.1. At this point, I had already started to build some confidence in the program and decided to skip a v02 max day on July 21st because I had already had the expectation that (Workout 2) was probably going to give me +.3 and (Workout 3) was going to give me +.4 due to Set #1 being rowing. I has tested it and it read was 51.5 instead of 51.8, but I had to trust the program and it was simply the heat. My last check was on July 26th post-rowing interval day and it read as 52 v02 max in the afternoon with 87-88 degrees. As far as I know, it is probably going to be 52.2. I’ll take the 52 and be happy with the results from this month since it was off by a few decimals in the video too.

Key Takeaways

1. Rowing is the best main exercise for me to start with due to my back and glutes being stronger than my quads. The quads are less needed, but still important, in rowing than in the Stairmaster. However, I still plan on alternating between rowing and Stairmaster as my first set options because a) I still improve my v02 max by +.3 so far in the workout and b) it directly improves the lactate threshold or tolerance in the quads and therefore continues to make quads less of an issue in rowing, which enables me to directly challenge the left ventricle of the heart instead of the quads being in the way. What also good about rowing first is that the quads won’t be too fatigued for the next two sets. It’s not too fast to fatigue the quads, but fast enough for the heart rate to rise in time for the heart to be challenged, plus that added bonus of it already being stressed in the first set.
2. I forgot to mention that the work to rest ratio is 1:1. So after 4 minutes of work, there is 4 minutes of rest.
3. From this experience, it takes a day of rest for the v02 max to increase.
4. I’m mostly sure that the extra set matters, and luckily, 3 sets was enough.
5. I think a good strategy is to make the first set different from the other sets due to muscle fatigue management.

There are some uncertainties, like whether it would still be +.3 if I removed the 3rd set of [Level 14] or if I would get better results if I did 4 sets. But at this point, I’m very happy with the results of this month and don’t feel the need to change things, and trust that I will adjust as I go. The common expectation is to increase the v02 max point by 1 point. What makes this different is that the typical program will have it done once a week, maybe 2 times a week and with higher volume. The common recommendation is 4-6 sets of 4-6 minutes with equal rest. So mine was higher frequency and making the most out of the first set as a possible reason why it has worked out so far. I plan on starting these workouts in August, alternating between rowing and stairmaster, and hopefully it will continue to progress at this pace till at least 55.