7/19/2014

Fitness numbers - CERG - NTNU

Research Cerg Exercise advice Fitness calculator Fitness numbers

Physical Fitness
Physical fitness is very important for longevity and good health. The maximal oxygen
uptake (fitness) is the most precise measure of overall cardiovascular fitness. Until
recently there has been no robust material that describes the distribution of maximal
oxygen uptake across a healthy, adult population. To investigate this, and further
study how maximal oxygen uptake was associated with conventional risk factors,
researchers at K. G. Jebsen Center of Exercise in Medicine at the Norwegian
University of Science and Technology tested more than 4,600 healthy Norwegians
between 20 and 90 years.
The researchers observed that the mean maximal oxygen uptake in women and men were 35
and 44 mL/kg/min, respectively. The material suggested a ~7% decline in maximal oxygen
uptake with every 10 year raise in age in both genders. Women and men below the genderspecific mean were 4 to 8 times more likely to have a combination of more than three
conventional cardiovascular risk factors (i.e. the metabolic syndrome) compared to the most fit
quartile of subjects. The researchers also observed that maximal oxygen uptake may represent
a continuum from health to disease, and that a general 5 mL/kg/min lower maximal oxygen
consumption was associated with ~56% higher odds of having the metabolic syndrome.
In conclusion, the study indicates that cardiovascular fitness may be even more important for
cardiac health than previously thought. The study-material is the historically largest and most
robust of it's kind with directly measured maximal oxygen uptake and more than 4,600 subjects,
and constitutes a reference-material to future studies. From the same data-material the
researchers also developed a non-exercise model that allows anyone to easily estimate their
maximal oxygen uptake. The model may prove to be an important tool for health authorities,
doctors and others to estimate the cardiovascular health status, so to say, and possibly prevent
future illness.
Mean maximal oxygen uptake across the age-groups
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Fitness numbers - CERG - NTNU

Age-group

Women

Men

20-29 years

43

mLkg-1min-1

54

mLkg-1min-1

30-39 years

40

mLkg-1min-1

49

mLkg-1min-1

40-49 years

38

mLkg-1min-1

47

mLkg-1min-1

50-59 years

34

mLkg-1min-1

42

mLkg-1min-1

60-69 years

31

mLkg-1min-1

39

mLkg-1min-1

70 years and more

27

mLkg-1min-1

34

mLkg-1min-1

Active middle-aged people can have the same maximal oxygen uptake as 20-29
year olds
Age-group
Men

Women

Inactive

Highly active

20-29 years

47

mLkg-1min-1

60

mLkg-1min-1

50-59 years

38

mLkg-1min-1

47

mLkg-1min-1

20-29 years

37

mLkg-1min-1

49

mLkg-1min-1

50-59 years

31

mLkg-1min-1

37

mLkg-1min-1

References:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21228724
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21502897

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