VO2 max predicts all-cause mortality better than cholesterol, blood pressure, or BMI, and it does it by testing an entire oxygen-delivery pipeline end to end rather than any single organ. A walk through the Fick equation that defines it, the lab test versus the number your watch guesses, the central-versus-peripheral split that decides where the ceiling actually sits, and what a 20-week family study reveals about how much of your trainability is genetics you can't touch.
Vo2-Max
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VO2 Max: What It Measures and Whether You Can Change It