Dan Lloyd’s journey back to fitness and health: the importance of VO2 max

I’ve done a lot of VO2 max tests in my adult life, and they all had one thing in common: I hated them all.

Except the most recent one.

To accurately test your VO2 max, you need to push yourself to the limit. They are painful and I think can best be described as ‘an ordeal’. The icing on the cake is the tight-fitting mask on your face, while the cake itself is the excruciating pain in your legs and lungs when you’re near exhaustion.

There are a number of things I miss about being a professional cyclist, but there are also many that I don’t miss. Training in the rain, completing my anti-doping ‘Whereabouts’ every day of the year, living out of a suitcase and crashing, it all comes to mind immediately. But VO2 max testing is near the top.

Read more: What are power and heart rate zones and what do they mean for cyclists?

So why didn’t I hate the latest one? Because I recently learned that VO2 max isn’t just a fitness marker that elite endurance athletes are interested in – we ALL need to know what ours is, and keep it as high as we can, if we want to live the longest, healthiest lives. lives possible. That’s what Episode 2 of my journey back to health and fitness is about: why we should all worry about our VO2 max. You can find that video in this article.

If you’re still skeptical (I would have been had I read this a year ago), allow me to quote Peter Attia, one of the world’s most respected experts on longevity. I’ve listened to many of his podcasts, and I’ve gone through most of his book, Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity. This is what he has to say about VO2 max:

“It is THE biggest predictor of longevity. More strongly associated with lower mortality risk than ANY other measure we know of.”

Just hearing that phrase on a podcast made me sit up, pay attention, and change my perspective. Of ALL the metrics we have to predict how long we will live, VO2 max is the best. That’s powerful. Attia further says:

“Whether you smoke or not, whether you have diabetes or not, whether you have end-stage kidney disease or not, whether you have heart disease or not, high blood pressure or not, all these things play a role. an important role in predicting the length of your life, but not as much as having a very high VO2 max. VO2 max rises above any other biomarker we have to predict the end of life.”

That’s not to say that all we should do from now on is try to increase our VO2 max, it’s just to emphasize its importance. I’ll discuss the other things we should pay attention to as this series progresses.

Read more: Dan Lloyd: Why I decided to change my lifestyle

Those of you who watched episode 1 may remember that my VO2 max was measured at 52 when I started this journey a few weeks ago. As many have noted in the comments, this is not a concerning number. In fact, it almost puts me in the “elite” category for my age and gender. However, it is quite a drop (>30%) since my last test in 2010, in which I recorded a VO2 max of 74.6.

Knowing what I know now, I obviously want to curb that decline, or hopefully even reverse it. I’ve “got away” with my lifestyle for the past twelve years because I started from such a high, but I can’t afford to continue on that downward trajectory.

But unfortunately it will wear off…eventually. If we maintain the same level of exercise from now until the end of our lives, our VO2 max will decrease by 8-10% per decade, or about 1% per year. So the higher we can get it now, the higher it will be in our later lives. The higher it is later in life, the more likely it is that we will still be able to walk up the stairs, cycle, pick up grandchildren or walk to the shops. I’ve found that thought particularly motivating: I may no longer have the desire to compete or even take on a Strava segment (never say never), but I do want to remain independent in my mobility for as long as possible. That process starts now.

The changes so far

What does that process currently look like? Well, I’ve made several changes to my lifestyle since episode one was released.

First of all, I managed to quit nicotine replacement almost four weeks ago. I had been working on it for four years. I did it cold turkey and… So far so good.

Read more: How bad is alcohol for cycling performance?

Secondly, I have reduced my alcohol consumption. I used to drink four to five nights a week, but now I only drink on Fridays and Saturdays. That’s probably a reduction of about 30 units per week for me, as I tend to drink strong beers, and quite a few of them.

Third, I moved! Since episode one, I’ve done some sort of exercise every day. Nothing over the top, but still something. A little cycling, a little running, a little rucking (walking and hiking with a weighted backpack), and I even joined a gym. I haven’t done anything specific yet, I just wanted to get back into an exercise routine and make it a habit.

I have already seen some significant changes. I have recorded my highest HRV and my lowest resting heart rate since I started using a Whoop two and a half years ago. The graphs below show the effects alcohol has on both metrics.

On the other hand, I wanted to close by saying that I was really impressed with the response to that first episode. I had gotten to a point in my life where I wanted to make some changes so I thought I would document them, but I had no idea how many of you were in such a similar space. If you’ve started your own journey since then, I sincerely hope things are going well for you. Let me know in the comments how you’re doing.

I’ll see you all soon for episode 3. In the meantime, it’s time for me to see if I can stay on the straight and narrow as I tackle the Giro d’Italia. Wish me luck!

You can keep up to date with Dan’s progress here on the GCN website and on the GCN YouTube channel. Let us know in the comments below if Dan has inspired you to make some lifestyle changes. We would also like to hear your stories.