50% VO 2max is equal to about 50% HRR, 75% VO 2max = 75% HRR, etc. Finding your heart rate bpm and knowing various heart rate reserve percentages, you can know approximately how much oxygen your consuming because exercise intensities from VO 2max to HRR are very closely related. Since you cannot know how much oxygen you’re using up during exercise, and you cannot exercise at 100% all the time like the VO 2max, using a pulse count is still best in a typical exercise routine. HRR (Heart Rate Reserve) is a helpful number needed to understand how hard you’re working during exercise. Striving for a higher VO 2max is one of the best ways to improve all cardiovascular functions in the body which will improve your overall fitness level. Each liter of oxygen utilized burns about 5 kcals so the higher the VO 2max, the more energy you will require to exercise meaning you can burn more calories and get better more intense workouts. Finding VO 2max is among the best measures of cardiorespiratory fitness.

The more cardiovascularly conditioned you are, the higher your VO 2max will be, thus the more oxygen you’ll be able to utilize with each breath. Not all air taken in is used by the body. VO 2max is the maximum amount of oxygen you can take in and utilize.

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