V ONLY WAY

HIGHER VO₂ MAX LEVELS ARE THE SECRET TO A LONG, HEALTHY LIFE

I’ve mentioned VO max, or the maximum rate that your body can use oxygen during exercise, previously in our little chats. Why do I keep banging on about this physiological index? Well, we all know that VO max is a gender-neutral friend and, in order to be a good cyclist, you need to have a high VO max.

A high score is necessary to win, that’s for sure, but this fitness measure is more complex than that. VO max has two faces, like Janus, and it’s the other, lesser-known face that’s what really interests us oldies. The one that involves not maximal-intensity cycling, but steady, regular exercise.

What is meant by the term “all-cause mortality”? In plain English it means the number of people that have died in a particular time period from all nasties that can kill us. In other words, it is the number of deaths in a population from all causes over a specific time period, say in a year, and is usually expressed as the number of deaths per 10,000 people.

Of course there are many causes of death over which we have very little control. Some examples are infections, cancers and genetic problems. I am not going to enumerate all of them. Why? Because we oldies are not interested in those diseases over which we do not have control but, unsurprisingly, we are very interested in those diseases which we can control because they are dependent upon lifestyle. My colleagues and I call these “diseases of exercise deficiency.”

The list of lifestyle diseases is extensive and includes high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart disease and strokes. Looking at this abbreviated list you can immediately understand why I call them diseases of exercise deficiency. They are all affected by our lifestyle. Altogether, these diseases make up about 50 per cent of the diseases that are included in all-cause mortality. So, you can see that, simply by watching your lifestyle, you can have a big effect on those nasties that are trying to chop you down.

VO max is the gold standard physiological index that we can use which allows us to predict whether our chances of getting these lifestyle diseases are high or low. Notice I’m talking probabilities here because nothing in biology can be predicted 100 per cent. When 10,224 men and 3,120 women were followed for eight years, it was found that age-adjusted mortality fell from 64 per 10,000 person years in the least fit men to just 18.6 in the fittest [‘person years’ reflects how long the participants spent in the study]. The figures for women were 39 for the least-fit women and less than half, or 18, for the fittest per 10,000 person years.

In another study of 25,000 men and 7,000 women, with an age range from 20 to 80 years, it was found that lower death rates were associated with regular physical activity. Finally, about 18,000 Korean men followed for 6.5 years showed that regular physical activity as assessed by our friend VO max was associated with a decrease in all-cause mortality.

I only show three studies here but there are many others from around the world.

So, does cycling keep our friend VO max happy? Yes, our own studies at King’s College shows this to be the case. However, physical activity must be done regularly and throughout your lifetime. Doing cycling, or any other physical activity, on a haphazard and intermittent schedule will not work.

Note, as well, that there is nothing about being involved in competition in any of these studies. I guess you must be getting tired of me harping on about the fact that going as hard and as fast as you are able does not give greater protection from disease. It only makes you more proficient in your chosen discipline.

Therefore, the message for us oldies is clear: you don’t have to push yourself to breaking point. Cycle regularly and keep to speeds and distances that are within your capabilities as you age. Combine that with ensuring that you’re eating the correct food in the correct amounts and you’ll be as good as it gets.

“I call high BP, type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart disease and strokes diseases of exercise deficiency”