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- THIS Is the Best Workout to Increase VO2 max (not zone 2)
THIS Is the Best Workout to Increase VO2 max (not zone 2)
Watch the full interview with Dr. Rhonda Patrick on The Rich Roll Podcast:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIT9DEHoLiU
In this video, she covers:
• The strongest fitness-related marker for longevity
• Why zone 2 cardio fails to improve VO₂ max for 40% of people
• The best workout protocol for improving VO₂ max
Get our free "How to Train According to the Experts" guide:
https://howtotrainguide.com/
Get Rhonda's exact exercise protocols for increasing levels of brain-derive neurotrophic factor:
https://bdnfprotocols.com/
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Video Transcript
Well, vigorous intensity exercise is great for that reason, but it's also great because
it is a way of improving our cardio respiratory fitness, our cardiovascular health.
And so, cardio respiratory fitness is a measure of...
It's usually measured in terms of VO2 max, as you know, and it's the maximum amount of
oxygen that you can take in during maximal exercise.
And cardio respiratory fitness is really a marker.
I personally think it's now, you know, emerging data over the last five years or so has proven
that is probably the strongest marker we have of longevity today.
You know, there's a lot of...
There are people out there looking at X, Y, Z biomarker, your epigenetic age, you know,
lots of different aging clocks or your blood glucose levels, lots of different things that
you can look at.
But it turns out that cardio respiratory fitness really is the prominent marker for longevity.
So if you're someone that's doing endurance exercise, like if you're an elite athlete,
you know, these people are training like what, 30 hours a week?
Yeah, on average.
On average.
Yeah.
For the majority of people that are really just sort of interested in health and fitness
and perhaps, you know, don't have a lot of time to work out a lot, you know, they're
barely trying to meet the minimum requirement of two and a half hours a week of moderate
intensity exercise, let's say.
They're limited by time constraints, let's say, but they want to improve their VO2 max.
They want to improve their cardiorespiratory fitness.
So, what kind of exercise do they engage in to improve their cardiorespiratory fitness?
So if you're doing something like 30 hours a week, you know, that is something that's,
you know, you're splitting your time between doing cardiovascular endurance training but
also some high-intensity interval training.
You're doing some vigorous intensity exercise along with that as well.
So you're kind of covering all the bases.
But for people that are not doing such long hours of training, there have been studies
that have shown that even people that are meeting the two and a half hours of moderate
intensity exercise per week, if they're only doing this sort of zone two training where
they're not really going into that vigorous zone, a lot of...up to 40% of people have
a hard time improving their VO2 max and they're called non-responders.
And so why is that?
Why are they not responding to cardiovascular, just simple endurance training, 70% max heart
rate, let's say, or below?
So about moderate intensity exercise.
exercise.
And it's not really known why, but it's thought that the stress isn't great enough to cause
the adaptations to allow them to improve their VO2 max.
And so when you take those non-responders and then have them engage in vigorous intensity
exercise, then they're able to improve their cardiorespiratory fitness.
Again, coming down to that adaptation where you're putting a greater stress on the cardiovascular
system and therefore your body is responding to that stress with a variety of different
beneficial response pathways.
And so VO2 max, I would say, again, as a marker of longevity, one of the best ways you can
improve that is by engaging in vigorous intensity exercise.
So that would be kind of the long-winded answer to the different types of endurance versus
