Achieving maximum levels of VO2 max is mainly for athletes and people who compete at certain endurance sports like triathlons, long distance running, swimming, rowing, cycling and others.

Even if you play recreational team sports like soccer, basketball, hockey and other endurance demanding sports (not American football or baseball which are mainly explosive and dynamic power demanding sports).

If you are just a normal person, who is trying to stay fit and healthy, you don’t have to waste your time chasing maximum levels of  VO2 max. You are most likely never really need it.

Doing some cardiovascular exercise 3-4 times per week for 20-60 minutes will be enough to keep you fit and healthy.

I competed at rowing for a long time. VO2 max training was a main part of my conditioning.

Below is a weekly VO2 max plan that we commonly used for maximum VO2 max enhancement.

This plan was done by us rowing on the water, but you can do it while running, swimming, bicycling, cross country skiing, or performing other endurance activities.

Warning!

This is a plan for a competitive athlete, not for somebody who is just starting. You need to seriously build up to this level.

And also, it might not be very health beneficial for you, since athletes go to the extremes to get an edge in performance. And sometimes, it’s just too much of an abuse for the body.

Demanding competitive sport training can help you perform on the race, but might hurt you in different way. For example immunity system weakens under such a training load. Making you more susceptible to get sick often. Also, injuries happen more often to over trained athletes.

And there is a time factor too. Not everybody has so much time for training. It can get very time consuming.And when you don’t train, you are so tired, you only eat or sleep. I have been there too.

The science behind this plan is that, you are managing different kinds of intensities and fitting them to your weekly plan in the most efficient way. That means, you want to pack as much as you can into your week, while being very careful about your body’s recovery.

Different intensity activities need different periods of time for recovery. For example after intensive interval workout your body needs from 48 to 72 hours to recover.

And activities like  long distance endurance trainings that last 45 min. to 3 hours and more in moderate intensity can work as a recovery workout itself. But, still be very effective for VO2 max improvement.

You shouldn’t take this plan as written to the stone. We are all different. We respond to different loads of training differently.

VO2 max and over-training

Clear communication between an athlete and coach, about how is athlete handling the load and constantly monitoring his health and feelings is very important. And sometimes the extra day off is necessary for optimal recovery. Other times increase in load is beneficial.

Coach – athlete factor is very important. And couch needs to be very sensitive about how is athlete feeling and make individual adjustments if necessary.

I remember in our rowing team, there was a certain kind of macho-ism between coaches and athletes.

We all wanted to do always what was written in the plan. We were also strongly encouraged by our coaches to finish the plan. No matter how tired we were and keep going. Even if we were clearly over-trained.

Showing no emotions and acting like you could handle even more, to show everybody how tough you are was  normal in our team.

Saying that you were tired, over-trained and that you needed a day off was considered being weak.

The result of course was substantially decreased performance. And doing more in this case was less. We were training more than others, but we didn’t perform better than them on important races.

It is very important to be very sensitive to the feelings and over-training signs in pursuit of maximum VO2 max.

Being smart and sometimes doing less can seriously increase your performance.

So, I am considering, that you’ll be very cautious about over-training and take it very seriously. If so, there is nothing you should be afraid off. Try this plan and see how it works.

VO2 max plan –  for reaching your maximum levels

Monday:

 Day off.

Tuesday:

Long intervals training.

Warm up 3000 meters (about 15 minutes) – easy pace.

High intensity intervals, where heart rate goes up to 180 – 200 beats per minute for an athlete. It will vary between individual athletes,

2 x 1000 meters – about 3 min. – high intensity interval/1000 meters between – 5 minutes in light intensity

2 x 15000 meters – about 5 min. – high intensity interval/1500 meters between – 7 min. in light intensity

1 x 2000 meters – about 8 min. – high intensity interval

Finishing training session with 3000 meters cool down rowing – about 15 min.

Wednesday:

Long distance rowing – 21 kilometers on water – 2.5 hours – 50-60% of aerobic capacity. Which in my case used to be at a heart rate between 160- 170 beats/min. This heart rate will also vary between athletes, depending on their fitness level.

Some very short explosive sprints were added to this workout for speed improvement, like 7 x 10 maximum speed strokes with long periods between them – about 5 – 10 minutes.

Thursday:

Long distance– 18 Km on water – about 2 hours at anaerobic threshold intensity, which is about 60-80% of maximum aerobic capacity(it varies between athletes). I will write about Anaerobic threshold for better understanding in my next article.

Friday:

Shorter  interval training

Warm up – 3000 meters – about 15 minutes

7×500 meters – about 75 seconds maximum intensity/500 meters between each interval in very easy intensity – 5 min.

Cool down – 3000 meters – 15 min.

Saturday:

Long distance rowing – 25 kilometers – about 3 hours light 50-60% of VO2 maxintensity – my heart rate 145-155 beats/ min. Yours will be different. Don’t forget about that. It depends how aerobically trained you are.

Sunday:

Long distance rowing – 18 kilometers in anaerobic threshold intensity – 60-80% of VO2 max intensity.

VO2 max training and recovery

As you can see, those long distance endurance trainings are fit right between those hard intensive interval sessions. While there are some exceptions, you should never do two hard interval trainings in 2 consecutive days. And you should keep at least 48 hours between them.

The reason is simple: Your body doesn’t have time to recover in one day.

Quite opposite reaction has your body to long distance endurance workout, where you don’t increase your heart rate past 60-70% of your maximum heart rate (that also varies between athletes). Your body is actually recovering faster than, if you were just sitting on the sofa the whole day.  

By this point I hope you understand that the recovery in intensive, demanding athletic plan plays a key role for every athlete. VO2 max maximization training is not different.

Achieving higher VO2 max levels takes longer than finishing one week plan. It actually takes forever.

If you are an athlete, and you want to achieve your own maximum VO2 max levels, you have to stick with it for very long time. You have to experiment with it and adjust accordingly. No one plan fits all.

If you are serious about you VO2 max levels and you work persistently and intelligently on it, you will be rewarded with incredible aerobic performance.

So go, work hard at it, be smart about it, and become the best of all. I think, that’s what you really want. I know, I used to be one too. Winning means everything if you are competitive endurance athlete.

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