VO2max is coming into focus
What researchers have been publishing
It’s on your wrist too
The Myers study
What on earth is a MET?
A MET is just a multiple of how hard your body is working when you are doing nothing at all. Sitting still in a chair is 1 MET. Something that takes twice as much oxygen is 2 METs. Ten times as much is 10 METs. That is the entire concept.
The men who lived could do more
The simplest possible comparison: take everyone who died, take everyone who did not, and look at how fit each group had been.
“Four times the risk” — but compared with what?
This is the result that explains why aerobic capacity gets so much attention. It is also one of the most slippery numbers in health reporting.
Fourteen years, three levels of fitness
The same men, followed forward, split into three groups by how far they got on the treadmill.
What this study cannot tell you
A fair reading of any paper includes the parts that do not support the headline.
What exactly is it?
A rate. How much oxygen the body can use in a minute: what the heart pumps, times what the muscles take out.
How big can it get?
The Myers men, the number on a watch, and the largest ever measured.
Is it the whole story?
It sets the ceiling. It does not pick the winner.
Can it be trained — or lost?
Twenty weeks of training. Twelve weeks of stopping. Thirty years. Three weeks in bed.