V02 max

We all talk about VO2 Max as a measure of conditioning, but it is worth considering the equation it represents: Q (cardiac output) times by oxygen differential (arteries-veins). In other words, how much blood you pump per minute times by how much oxygen our muscle takes from the blood. As performance relies largely on your ability to fuel the muscles with carbon and then remove the waste product with oxygen (into carbon dioxide which is then exhaled), VO2max is one of the best indicators for a player's capacity.

If we want to improve VO2 max, or rather maximal aerobic capacity, it is important to understand how much blood is being pumped around the body and then how well muscles are taking out the oxygen from the blood – which we could see as how much oxygen is in the arteries fully oxygenated versus after it has diffused through capillaries, how much is left in the vein.

With chronic training, it is a given that VO2 max can increase by 20% of your base, sometimes even more in just the single year of good training – the less trained you are the easier it tends to be to improve. Along with that, stroke volume at maximum will go up along with number of capillaries for oxygen to diffuse through, but maximum heart rate actually does not change much because it is limited by contractions and the need to get blood back into the heart before it pumps it out. That is why we do not generally see hearts beating far past 200bpm - this would be pointless as it would reduce stroke volume, not increase it. Similar to a couple of other areas related to good conditioning, regular, principle-led conditioning sessions are what lead to large-scale improvements to VO2max.