Can an 80-year-old have a 35-year-old's VO2max?
One Norwegian man did: 50 mL/kg/min, ~90 min/wk structured training, ~3 h/day active. Decline from a recalled ~75 at 25 was ordinary; he started high. n = 1: possible, not typical.
Karlsen et al. describe an 80-year-old Norwegian man tested in February and March 2013 who reached a VO2max of 50 mL/kg/min (3.31 L/min) on a treadmill at 10% incline, a value the authors place about 50% above the mean of Norwegian 80-year-old men, above the ACSM 90th percentile for his age (44.2) and above the mean of Norwegian men aged 30-39.
His maximal heart rate was 175 beats/min and his maximal oxygen pulse 19 mL/beat; lung volumes were 126-128% and diffusion capacity 149% of age-predicted values; blood volume was 5.8 L.
He reported only about 30 minutes of structured endurance and strength training three times a week (~90 min/week), but an armband worn for 6 days logged 10,843 steps a day and 2 h 51 min a day at 3 METs or more, of which 21 min was vigorous. He grew up doing heavy farm work and has a lifelong active life.
He has had a pacemaker for about 10 years (intermittent second-degree AV block) and takes aspirin. By the occupational tests he recalls (~75 mL/kg/min at 25, ~58 at 45), his loss works out at about 7% a decade, which the authors call "normal"; most of it fell between 25 and 45, after an injury at 42, and only 0.23 mL/kg/min a year after 45.
Our reading: this is what is possible for one man who started very high and stayed very active; it does not show that an active life slowed his decline, and it cannot separate training from genes or a farm childhood.
Protocol
Design: single case report; one investigation period (February-March 2013); no control person or group. The man volunteered; the regional ethics committee advised that no application was needed; written consent was signed.
Who: man, 80 years, 66.6 kg, BMI 23, 12% fat mass, 49% skeletal muscle mass (bioimpedance); never smoked; aspirin; pacemaker for ~10 years for intermittent second-degree AV block (Mobitz type 2), paced at rest, sinus rhythm as soon as he pedalled.
Training history (self-reported): farm work, fishing, hunting and berry picking in childhood; now ~30 min of structured training three times a week (~20 min endurance including short bouts up to lactate threshold intensity, ~10 min mostly upper-body and core strength, 10-12 reps per set); a yearly 7-day mountain ski trip.Race results confirmed online only for 2002-2007: Birkebeiner 54 km ski 4:41:25 (2002, 130th of 65-69) and 4:46:04 (2004, 21st of 70-74), Vasaloppet 90 km (2007), and in 2004 a 89 km mountain-bike race (5th) and a mountain half marathon (6th) in the 70-74 class.
VO2max: treadmill running at fixed 10% incline, speed raised about every minute to exhaustion after a 15-min warm-up; breath-by-breath (MMX-II), VO2max = mean of the three highest consecutive 10-s values with a levelling-off; confirmed twice more in two laboratories (the paper's own lab and an Olympic training facility). Equipment test-retest CV 1.8%.
Other measures: resting blood pressure and heart rate; fasting blood; brachial flow-mediated dilatation (ultrasound); total blood, plasma and red-cell volumes and haemoglobin mass by CO rebreathing; spirometry and diffusion capacity; resting and light upright-cycling echocardiography to a heart rate of ~100 beats/min; a SenseWear armband for 6 days.
Comparators: published reference values only (Norwegian population VO2max and heart-rate data, ACSM percentiles, the HUNT echocardiography study, 12 Swedish lifelong octogenarian endurance athletes, published blood-volume and lung-function norms). Earlier VO2max values at 25 and 45 years were the man's recollection of occupational-health tests.
Funding: research grants from the Central Norway health authorities, the K.G. Jebsen Center for Exercise in Medicine and NTNU covered the scientists' salaries; the authors declare no conflict of interest.
Key Results
| Measure | Value at 80 | Authors' reference |
|---|---|---|
| VO2max | 50 mL/kg/min; 3.31 L/min; 14 METs | ~50% above Norwegian 80-year-old men; above ACSM 90th percentile (44.2); above the mean of Norwegian men 30-39; 8 mL/kg/min above the best of 12 Swedish lifelong octogenarian athletes |
| Maximal heart rate | 175 beats/min | 12 beats/min above Norwegian men his age |
| Maximal oxygen pulse | 19 mL/beat | 9% and 15% above Norwegian men his age and Swedish lifelong athletes |
| Anaerobic threshold | 86% of VO2max (42.8 mL/kg/min) | — |
| Max ventilation; RER | 111 L/min; 1.14 | breathing reserve 25 L/min |
| Lung function | FVC 4.31 L (128% predicted), FEV1 3.41 L (126%), DLCO 149% predicted | "above average for his age" |
| Blood | total volume 5.8 L (87 mL/kg), Hb mass 744 g (11.2 g/kg) | ~17-19% above older men; below elite athletes |
| Heart at rest | paced rhythm, LV end-diastolic volume 147 mL, EF 54%; mitral E/A 1.2 | filling "normal for 40- to 70-year-old men" (HUNT) |
| Heart at light exercise (HR 100, sinus) | EF 80%, E/e′ 10.0 | no rise in filling pressure |
| Brachial FMD | 2.72% | 3% below a Norwegian reference mean, "no indication of endothelial dysfunction" |
| Blood markers | total cholesterol 4.00, HDL 1.76, LDL 1.99 mmol/L; fasting glucose 5.2 mmol/L; HbA1c 6.2%; blood pressure 136/78 | authors: "normal" |
| Daily activity (6 days) | 10,843 steps/day; 2:51 h/day at ≥3 METs (2:31 moderate, 0:21 vigorous, none >9 METs) | 1050 and 147 min/week moderate and vigorous: 7 and 2 times the guideline minimum |
| Structured training (self-report) | ~30 min × 3 per week (~90 min/week) | — |
| VO2max history | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Age 25 | ~75 mL/kg/min | self-reported occupational test |
| Age 45 | ~58 mL/kg/min | self-reported occupational test |
| Age 80 | 50 mL/kg/min | measured, confirmed in two labs |
| Rate 25 → 80 | 0.45 mL/kg/min per year, ~7% per decade | authors' calculation: "comparable to the 6–11% reduction per decade" in trained and sedentary men |
| Rate 25 → 45 / 45 → 80 | 8.5 mL/kg/min per decade / 0.23 mL/kg/min per year | authors link the early loss to a serious injury at 42 |
The headline is a level, not a slope. By the authors' own arithmetic his long-term decline (~7% a decade) is in the ordinary range for both trained and sedentary men; the "Perspectives" paragraph says the reduction with ageing "is normal" and points to "the importance of having a high maximal oxygen uptake at a young age".The Discussion also says his activity "may explain" a smaller loss from 50 (0.23 mL/kg/min a year after 45); that reading rests on his recalled tests at 25 and 45.
Low structured training, high total activity. About 90 min a week of training, but about 20 hours a week at 3 METs or more, including about 2.5 hours a week of vigorous activity, in one 6-day sample he called a normal week.
Mechanisms
Measured: a large maximal oxygen pulse (19 mL/beat) with a high maximal heart rate (175) implies a large cardiac output; blood volume and haemoglobin mass are above those of older men; lung volumes and diffusion capacity are well above prediction.
Authors' interpretation: his supranormal lung volumes may keep him from being ventilation-limited (a "normal for age" FEV1 of ~2.70 L would give an MVV below his maximal ventilation of 111 L/min); a large, strong muscle mass "may contribute positively", and his active lifestyle "may be his 'fountain of youth'", together with a high VO2max at a young age.
Authors' interpretation: his habits "may indicate that large volumes of both moderate and vigorous physical activity are needed to maintain a high VO2max" at 80. This is a hypothesis from one week of one man's activity, not a dose finding.
Inference: the pacemaker for second-degree AV block sits in a man with lifelong heavy activity and what the authors call an athlete's heart with bradycardia (lowest heart rate 52 beats/min in sleep, while he is in pacemaker rhythm at rest). Conduction disease is also common with age alone; this case cannot say whether his activity contributed, and the authors do not discuss it.
Inference: a farm childhood of heavy manual labour, a high VO2max at 25 and favourable genetics all precede the "active life", so no part of the result can be assigned to the training he does now.
Practical Application
Can an 80-year-old have a 35-year-old's VO2max? One Norwegian man did: 50 mL/kg/min, ~90 min/wk structured training, ~3 h/day active. Decline from a recalled ~75 at 25 was ordinary; he started high. n = 1: possible, not typical.
Count all activity, not only training (the base's practice, inference from one week of one man): his structured training was small, but measured daily activity was about 2:51 h at 3 METs or more. For an older athlete with few "sessions", daily walking, manual work and outdoor activity are part of the load picture.
Do not quote his numbers as a target. One man, recalled earlier tests, no comparison; the base's population data show that spread between people grows with age (REF-1138, B+), so a single outlier says nothing about what a given athlete should expect.
Medical note (practice, not evidence): the man lives with a pacemaker for AV block and an HbA1c of 6.2%; an exceptional VO2max does not exclude conduction disease or a glucose value that diagnostic thresholds would flag. Symptoms such as dizziness, fainting or palpitations in an older athlete are for a doctor, whatever the fitness.
Limitations
One man, one visit, no control; the paper describes rather than tests anything.
The VO2max values at 25 and 45 years (~75 and ~58) are his recollection of occupational tests with unknown methods; every "rate of decline" in the paper rests on them.
Training history and the "normal week" of activity are self-reported; activity was sampled for 6 days only, by an armband.
Strength was not measured despite the paper's photograph and its claim about a "strong and functional" muscle mass; skeletal muscle mass is a bioimpedance estimate.
Treadmill test at a fixed 10% incline to 10 km/h; reference values come from different protocols and populations.
The authors call all blood markers normal; HbA1c 6.2% lies in the range most diagnostic guidelines label prediabetes (our reading), and the paper does not comment on it.
Pacemaker rhythm at rest makes resting echocardiographic patterns abnormal; exercise echocardiography went only to a heart rate of ~100.
"World record" VO2max for his age is the authors' claim ("could be a world record"), not a verified registry.
Funding: institutional research grants covered salaries; no conflicts declared. No ethics application (advised not required).
How this entry was checked and changed
Why this level
single case study (the rubric's row for n = 1), read from the full text (Europe PMC, open access, CC BY). Nothing is compared with a control, the VO2max values at 25 and 45 years are the man's own recollection of occupational tests, and the training history is self-reported
Full text (checked 2026-10-22)
"His VO2max is 50 mL·kg−1·min−1, corresponding to 3.31 L·min−1 and 14 METs"; maximal heart rate 175 beats·min−1, O2-pulse 19 mL·beats−1; anaerobic threshold at 86% of VO2max (VO2 = 42.8 mL·kg−1·min−1); maximal RER 1.14 (full text).
"~50% above the mean for 80-year-old men in Norway" and "above the 90 percentile (44.2 mL·kg−1·min−1) in the ACSM guidelines"; 8 mL·kg−1·min−1 above the highest VO2max among 12 Swedish lifelong octogenarian endurance athletes (full text).
He received a pacemaker ~10 years ago, inserted due to intermittent second-degree AV-block (Mobitz type 2); lowest resting heart rate 52 beat·min−1 during sleep; currently medicated with aspirin (full text).
Self-reported VO2max of ~75 and ~58 mL·kg−1·min−1 at 25 and 45 years; a relative 7% reduction per decade, "comparable to the 6–11% reduction per decade"; 0.45 mL·kg−1·min−1 per year from 25 to 80; 8.5 mL·kg−1·min−1 decrease per decade between 25 and 45; 0.23 mL·kg−1·min−1 per year between 45 and 80; seriously injured at the age of 42 (full text).
"The reduction in VO2max with aging is normal in the 80-year-old man, indicating the importance of having a high maximal oxygen uptake at a young age" (full text).
~30 minutes of structured endurance and strength training 3 times/week; "a low volume of systematic exercise training (90 min per week)"; 10,843 steps·day−1; daily active time 2:51 hr·day−1, 2:31 hr·day−1 moderate and 0:21 hr·day−1 vigorous; 1050 min·wk−1 and 147 min·wk−1 (full text).
FVC 4.31 L, FEV1 3.41 L, FEV1/FVC 0.79; FVC, FEV1 at 128%, 126% of predicted; DLCO at 149% of the age-predicted value; blood volume 5.8 L, total Hb-mass 744 g, 11.2 g·kg−1 (full text).
Table 1: Body weight (kg) 66.6; Fat mass (%) 12; Skeletal muscle mass (%) 49; Systolic blood pressure (mmHg) 136; Diastolic blood pressure (mmHg) 78; Blood glucose (mmol·L−1) 5.2; B-HbA1c (%) 6.2 (full text).
Birkebeiner finishing times of 4:41:25 and 4:46:04 hours, number 130 (65–69-year age group) and number 21 (70–74-year age group) (full text).