VO2 max testing in London: what happens, what it costs, who it is for

What happens in a VO2 max test in London?

It is on a Wattbike, not a treadmill, and it is not a max test. You wear normal training kit and a Polar heart rate monitor. There is no mask. Your age, weight and sex go into the bike first, and I talk you through the 1 to 10 effort scale.

Two minutes of warm-up follows, which doubles as my check that the bike fits you.

From there the Wattbike picks a starting power and adds 15 watts a minute. Your job is to hold about 90 rpm and stay on the target.

I check in with you constantly, asking for your effort out of 10. I’m not there to cheer you on, because my job is to make sure you don’t go past the stopping point.

We stop when you reach 80% of your maximum heart rate or a 7 out of 10, the point where you can only speak in short phrases. Six minutes on the ramp is the minimum for a usable estimate, and the whole thing is done inside 15 minutes, warm-up included.

Is the number measured, or estimated?

I estimate it. I don’t measure it, and the report says so.

The test is Wattbike’s submaximal health assessment protocol. The estimate comes out of your age, weight and sex together with the power you reach before the stopping point. Wattbike’s partnership with Bupa on this same test was announced in 2019.

I used to run breath-by-breath testing with a Calibre Biometrics mask. Calibre is no longer trading, so that is gone, and the estimate is what I use now.

What makes an estimate worth having is control over everything around it. Your details are re-entered each time, because a wrong weight gives a wrong number. The stopping point does not move, and nothing counts until six minutes of ramp have gone by.

Retests happen on the same bike under the same protocol, so one result can be set against another honestly. And it is never read on its own.

What you walk out with

A number on its own is the least of it. VO2 max is one piece of the Longevity Assessment. The rest is blood pressure, resting heart rate, grip strength, movement screening, balance, power, and a lifestyle questionnaire covering exercise, nutrition, stress and recovery.

A separate hour is set aside afterwards to go through it with you, piece by piece, in plain terms.

You then receive a PDF report that rates five areas red, amber or green and sets out what to do about each in training and in daily life.

Who books it, and what they worry about first

Nobody books a standalone VO2 max test with me, and that is deliberate. Two types of person book the Longevity Assessment.

One is the professional who wants a straight picture of where their health stands, and more to the point what to do about it. Data for its own sake is not what they are after.

The other wants to see how I work before committing to coaching. They leave with something they can act on whichever way that goes.

How it differs from a watch or a gym machine

It is done on a machine, and I’m upfront about that. I don’t use breath-by-breath gas analysis, because that sits in a clinical space that isn’t my remit.

What I want is a number that can be taken again easily, and a short submaximal ramp with no mask fits inside an ordinary session.

Against a watch, or against doing it yourself on a gym bike, three things differ. The inputs are right, someone holds you to the protocol, and the result gets read next to everything else.

For following your own trend between assessments, a watch is perfectly good. If you need precise training zones for competition, book a lab test instead.

What it costs

The Longevity Assessment is £299 in person at UNTIL Liverpool Street, as a one-off payment. If you go on to a 12 or 24-session coaching package, the £299 is credited against it.

If you want the number in context rather than on its own, that is the way to get it. You can see what each piece of the assessment measures, or read what the number actually means once you have it.