Improve your VO2 max: a 12-week programme you can track
Start from your own baseline, follow a guide for each week, time your intervals, tick off your sessions and check in once a week. Your heart-rate zones, your week, your pace.
Leave your email and access all the tools and guides
One email, one time: every calculator and guide opens in this browser. The tools give general, illustrative estimates for healthy adults, not medical advice.
Welcome, I’m so glad you’re here.
You now have the same tools my clients use every week. Use them, come back to them, and let’s stay connected.
Keep an eye on the updates: this is just the beginning. I’ll keep adding new tools and guides, and this collection will keep growing.
You’re also on the newsletter, so you’ll hear about every new tool and guide.
Follow along for every update:
@withme.nutritionAlexandra Lasconi, WITH ME
About you
Your exercise now
Make it more accurate (optional)
Your plan
Your VO2 max
Fitness age compares you with healthy Norwegian adults (the population the main model was built on); the percentile compares you with adults tested on a treadmill in US clinics, who are less fit on average. The two can read quite differently, and both are correct for their population.
How your number was worked out
Your realistic target
Your heart-rate zones
How to do the interval sessions
Your week
Your 12 weeks
| Week | Phase | Intervals | Zone 2 (easy) |
|---|
Fuel and recovery
When and how to retest
How the programme works
- Set your baseline. The same questions as the VO2 max calculator. If you come from the calculator, your answers are already filled in.
- Follow this week. Each week has a short guide and a list of sessions with your own heart-rate zones. The interval timer takes you through warm-up, efforts, recoveries and cool-down.
- Check in once a week. Resting heart rate, how the sessions felt, energy and sleep. The check-in tells you whether to move on or repeat the week.
- Retest in week 8 and week 12. Enter your new numbers to see your change against your starting point.
Your answers, ticks and check-ins stay in your browser. Nothing is sent to WITH ME.
Questions people ask
- How long does it take to improve VO2 max?
- In a key trial, four 4-minute efforts at 90 to 95% of maximum heart rate, three times a week, raised VO2 max by about 7% in 8 weeks. People starting at a lower level can improve by 10 to 15% in 12 weeks; trained people more like 3 to 6%.
- How many sessions a week does the programme need?
- Two to six, your choice. Most plans have one or two interval sessions and the rest is easy Zone 2 work, where you can hold a conversation.
- What if I miss sessions or a week feels too hard?
- Carry on with the next session. The weekly check-in suggests repeating a week when fewer than half the sessions were done or the week felt too hard, and nothing you have done is lost.
The method, the accuracy of each estimate and all 13 sources are on the VO2 max calculator page.
Train with Nawaf, the programme's strength & conditioning coach
The 16-week Nutrition & Lifestyle Remodel adapts your food, training and recovery every week, with a complimentary 10-minute intro call to start.
These tools give general estimates for healthy adults and are not medical advice. If you are pregnant, under 18, or have a medical condition, talk to your doctor before starting hard exercise.
