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LukeRuns97
Shkhara
Status: Open To Voting

Morning All runners 🏃‍♂️

Suggestion for the moderators/platform designers, would be great if Strava introduced measurement of VO2 Max. HR is currently measured, this could easily be integrated to work out a user's VO2 Max score, and have this split into 4/5 zones, as they do on Samsung Health. This would help me track my progress a lot more and give me more motivation to improve, especially when it's bloody cold like it was this morning😂

Thanks😁

20 Comments
Status changed to: Open To Voting
Bryant
Moderator Moderator
Moderator

Thanks for submitting your idea.
It has been reviewed by our moderation team and is now open to voting.

In the comments below, would you mind giving a brief summary of what VO2 Max is?
In doing so, you could inform those not familiar with the measurement on how this could be beneficial to athlete's if this was added.

Thank you so much for your contribution.


KBryant24
STRAVA | Community Hub Team

DutchDavid
Mt. Kenya

VO2 max, or maximal oxygen consumption, refers to the maximum amount of oxygen that an individual can utilize during intense or maximal exercise. This measurement is generally considered the best indicator of cardiovascular fitness and aerobic endurance. The more oxygen a person can use during high level exercise, the more energy a person can produce. This test is the gold standard for determining cardio-respiratory fitness because the muscles need oxygen for prolonged aerobic exercise, and the heart must pump adequate amounts of blood through the circulation to meet the demands of aerobic exercise.

The test involves either exercising on a treadmill or a bike at an intensity that increases every few minutes until exhaustion, and is designed to achieve a maximal effort. They also obtain the individual’s maximal heart rate from this test, which, along with resting heart rate, can be used to develop a more precise target heart rate range. This is more accurate than age-predicted equations. Thus, the subject leaves the lab with an excellent idea of his/her current fitness level and also how to use this information to improve fitness.

 

Strave has an option where you can personally adjust your max heart rate. which is nice, but maybe they could allow for more details/data to be inserted onto Strava based on the individual's own score/info after such a test to track more accurate progress.

nradov
Pico de Orizaba

This is a good idea in general, but most athletes who actually care about VO2 Max are already using a device such as a Garmin with that feature. If Strava adds their own VO2 Max metric then the results for some users will inevitably be different from the Garmin (FirstBeat Analytics) metric, and then they'll complain and argue about the discrepancy.

https://www.firstbeatanalytics.com/en/features/vo2max-fitness-level/

DutchDavid
Mt. Kenya

But would it not be great if you could manually insert your results from your vo2max test into Strava so that their own Vo2max metric is adjusted to your data? i don't have a Garmin or sportwatch, my heart rate monitor chest strap connects directly with Stava. so I have a very accurate heart rate measurement, now I just need to sync my VO2max into Strava and that would be all I need!

RMSouthAfrica
Superuser
Superuser

This is a good idea also provide guidance on how to improve it to the max

VikK
Superuser
Superuser

I think that would be a nice metric to import from Garmin etc if available or to calculate one if metrics are available. 


Vik
pcannon1984
Mt. Kenya

This is a nice idea and certainly can be useful as a way to track progress but people should know that the values estimated by other programs (eg Garmin, which I use) are often so inaccurate that they are not representative of VO2 max at all. My experience with the Garmin VO2 max value, derived in my case exclusively from chest strap HRM data, is that it is off by about 50% from the result I get in a lab test. Personally I think the Garmin race time predictors are a much better way to track progress. Though if the implied VO2 max metric could somehow be calibrated by manually inputting lab test VO2 max data as someone suggests above, that would be very interesting.

RMSouthAfrica
Superuser
Superuser

Some good views on the VO2 Max accuracy from our community. Given that the running watches could really be giving an estimate and not completely accurate. Then syncing your watch to strava could also mean that the results will be inaccurate. For instance, those who have a HR monitor give the same feedback that the results are extremely different. We therefore need to think about this further before any action can be taken.

Rogier
Pico de Orizaba

My Garmins consistently underestimate my VO2max by 7 or 8 ml/min/kg compared to my lab tests on the treadmill with an oxygen mask.

Garmin: 55. Lab test: 63; using Garmin's number would ruin any race or training cycle.

Garmin's VO2max guesstimate is just as misleading as the infamous "maxHR = 220- age" myrh.

Letting users add their own lab test VO2max and max heart rate is a good idea, letting Strava guesstimate wildly inaccurate data the way Garmin does is not. That will only push lots of people into running in the wrong training zones just because an app tells 'em to.

Strava should fix its fitness score first. That number has nothing to do with fitness.

DutchDavid
Mt. Kenya

@Rogier  well said! my thoughts exactly. it's why i don't use a Garmin as a middleman but have a chest strap, which is more accurate, directly linked to Strava. but then Strava still needs to interpret the data correctly. we can already adjust our max heart rate on our Strava account, but if Strava would allow for more relevant data/metrics to be inserted based on our personal Vo2max test results that, would be great.

mikeatx
Shkhara

I love this feature in Apple Health from Apple Watch. I personally don't care about accuracy as long as it's consistent. An indicator that your cardio health in improving or declining over time is very valuable. I wish it would estimate V02 while cycling; as it only works on run or walk actives. I'm not a runner so I just go for a 2 mile walk once a week soley to get that number. 

BryanC
Superuser
Superuser

I agree it would be good if Strava showed VO2 Max information.  
I already get a cycling one from Garmin and another one, based on my walking from Apple Watch.  
Strava could either read those or, preferably, calculate its own VO2 Max but do it for each activity type and then display that Vs time on a graph. 

COtrailrunner
Mt. Kenya

Without calculating VO2 Max I don't see the point in paying for Strava.  It seems like a huge miss for them not to have this feature/measurement.

MatejKolman
Mt. Kenya

I am trying strava subscritpion and immediately looking for vo2 max calculation or import from garmin connect becouse I would like more detailed analysis or training suggestion. Then I see that do not even know what it is.

Aguia77
Shkhara

Just to add to this, I had my Vo2 max tested in lab (running threadmill with mask on) and it hit Garmin estimated Vo2 max exactly (48 at the time). The estimate is based on heart rate, pace and body weight.
Garmin also splits this into Running and Cycling Vo2 max (makes me wonder if it makes sense to have them split, but the numbers are quite different in my case). I think it would be a cool feature for those who don't have sportwatches that estimate this.