VO₂ Max Calculator
Estimate your VO₂max from a Cooper 12-minute run, a 1.5-mile run, the Rockport one-mile walk or your resting and maximum heart rates, with every equation shown.
How to Use
- Pick the test you did: Cooper 12-min, 1.5-mile run, Rockport walk or Heart-rate ratio.
- Cooper: enter the distance covered in 12 minutes and its unit. 1.5-mile run: enter your time as m:ss.
- Rockport: walk one mile as fast as you can, then enter the time, your heart rate at the finish, your age, sex and weight (kg, lb or stone).
- Heart-rate ratio: enter your resting heart rate, and either your age (for a Tanaka maximum) or a maximum you measured.
- Read your VO₂max, its value in METs and the matching result for the run tests on the scale, then check Show Work for the equation with your numbers.
Worked Example
A Cooper test. 2,400 m in 12 minutes: VO₂max = (2,400 − 504.9) ÷ 44.73 = 1,895.1 ÷ 44.73 = 42.4 ml/kg/min, or 42.37 ÷ 3.5 = 12.1 METs. The 1.5-mile run equation gives the same score for a time of 483 ÷ (42.37 − 3.5) = 12.43 min, or 12:26.
A Rockport walk. A 45-year-old man weighing 80 kg (176.37 lb) walks the mile in 15:00 and finishes at 130 bpm: 132.853 − 0.0769 × 176.37 − 0.3877 × 45 + 6.315 × 1 − 3.2649 × 15 − 0.1565 × 130 = 38.8 ml/kg/min.
The common mistake: putting kilograms into the Rockport equation. The weight term is in pounds. Entering 80 instead of 176.37 makes 0.0769 × 96.37 = 7.4 too little come off, and the answer jumps to 46.3 ml/kg/min. This page converts kg and stone to pounds for you; the minutes are decimal too, so 15:30 is 15.5, not 15.3.
Show Work
Formulas
Where the Field Tests Come From
Kenneth Cooper, a US Air Force physician, published “A means of assessing maximal oxygen intake: correlation between field and treadmill testing” in the Journal of the American Medical Association in January 1968. His idea was that the distance someone can run in 12 minutes tracks the VO₂max measured on a treadmill closely enough to test large groups without a laboratory. The equation (d − 504.9) ÷ 44.73 is the straight line commonly used to score it.
The 1.5-mile run is the timed version of the same idea and is widely used in fitness assessments; it is usually scored with 483 ÷ t + 3.5. That equation is reproduced in many textbooks and lab manuals, but we could not trace the original study behind it, so read it as a rough guide.
The Rockport walking test came from Kline and colleagues, who measured VO₂max on a treadmill in 343 healthy adults aged 30 to 69 and then had each walk a mile as fast as they could (Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 1987). Niels Uth and colleagues at Aarhus University proposed the heart-rate ratio method in the European Journal of Applied Physiology in 2004, using Fick-principle reasoning and treadmill tests on 46 well-trained men.
About This Tool
This calculator scores four common field tests with their published equations and shows each one worked through. The scale lines up VO₂max with the 12-minute distance and the 1.5-mile time that give the same score, so you can compare a walk test, a run test and a heart-rate estimate on one picture. It deliberately leaves out “excellent” or “poor” labels, because the rating tables we found differ by source and we only show figures we can cite.
Hard running tests are strenuous; start gently and stop if you feel unwell. Everything runs in your browser; nothing you enter is sent anywhere. For general information only — not medical advice. Talk to a doctor or other qualified professional about your own health.
Related tools: Target Heart Rate Zones, Race Time Predictor, and BMI Calculator.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is VO₂max?
It is the most oxygen your body can take up and use per minute during hard exercise, given in millilitres per kilogram of body weight per minute. Because 1 MET is 3.5 ml/kg/min, a VO₂max of 42.4 means you can work at about 12.1 times your resting rate for a short time.
How is the Cooper 12-minute test scored?
Run as far as you can in 12 minutes on a flat course or track, then use VO₂max = (distance in metres − 504.9) ÷ 44.73. 2,400 m gives 42.4 ml/kg/min, 2,800 m gives 51.3 and 3,000 m gives 55.8.
Can I estimate VO₂max without running?
Yes. The Rockport test uses a one-mile walk: a 45-year-old man weighing 80 kg (176.4 lb) who walks it in 15:00 and finishes at 130 bpm scores 38.8 ml/kg/min. Kline and colleagues built the equation from 343 adults aged 30 to 69 (1987).
Can I estimate VO₂max from my resting heart rate?
Uth and colleagues (2004) found VO₂max ≈ 15.3 × maximum ÷ resting heart rate in 46 well-trained men. A measured maximum of 190 and a resting rate of 50 give 15.3 × 3.8 = 58.1. Their error was 2.7 ml/kg/min with a measured maximum but 4.7 with an age-predicted one.
Why doesn’t this page say whether my VO₂max is good?
Rating tables differ between sources and depend on age and sex, and we only show figures we can cite, so the page gives the number, its METs and the matching run results instead of a label. Every field test is an estimate; only a laboratory test with gas analysis measures VO₂max directly.
How do I use the VO₂ Max Calculator?
Just type your numbers. The answer shows up right away — there is no button to press. Change anything and it updates by itself.
Does it cost anything or need an account?
No. The tool is completely free, there is no account to create, and it keeps working offline after the page first loads.
Is anything I type uploaded?
No. The tool works entirely on your device, so the values you enter never leave your browser.
Common Use Cases
Tracking a training block
A 12-minute run that improves from 2,400 m to 2,800 m moves the estimate from 42.4 to 51.3 ml/kg/min.
Comparing two tests
A 12:00 1.5-mile run scores 43.8 ml/kg/min, the same as 2,462 m in the Cooper test — the scale lines them up.
Walkers and beginners
A 52-year-old woman weighing 65 kg who walks a mile in 16:30 at 140 bpm scores 25.9 ml/kg/min on the Rockport equation.
Checking a watch estimate
With a resting rate of 55 and a Tanaka maximum of 183.5 at age 35, the heart-rate ratio gives 51.0 ml/kg/min.
Converting to METs
Divide by 3.5: 42.4 ml/kg/min is 12.1 METs, a number activity tables such as the Compendium of Physical Activities use.
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