What Are VO2 Max Supplements? How Can They Help Bodybuilders and Powerlifters

If you’re into bodybuilding, powerlifting, CrossFit, running, or even casual fitness-related activities, you may have come across the term VO2 max. You may have also heard that having a higher VO2 max makes you better at endurance-based sports, but how do you define the term? Well, VO2 max is the maximum amount of oxygen your body uses during exercise.

While the ability to uptake more oxygen is most beneficial for cardio-respiratory intensive activists, even strength athletes like bodybuilders and powerlifters can benefit from pushing their VO2 max as high as possible. This is where the supplements come in. There is no shortage of supplements in the fitness industry, even for those looking to boost their cardio to levels.

What’s in Vo2 max supplements?

There are supplements for booting almost every performance metric you can think of. Supplements like Whey Protein, Creatine, Pre-Work, etc., promise to boost your training sessions and how much muscle you can gain. Similarly, some supplements promise to help you boost your cardio gains faster than usual. They also promise to improve overall endurance levels.

So, what do these supplements contain? Surprisingly, most supplements that claim to boost endurance and VO2 Max supplements have a simple list of ingredients. IFBB Pro and bodybuilding coach Greg Coucette has his brand of endurance-enhancing supplement. His supplement contains vitamins B-9 and B-12, sodium, nicotinamide mononucleotide, fruit, and black pepper extracts.

Other supplements contain similar ingredients, including green tea extract, vitamin C, B-3, folate, and more. However, you may be asking why endurance would play a role in strength and muscle building. You may also be thinking about how increasing endurance would help you in sports like powerlifting and bodybuilding.

Why enhancing your endurance is essential in strength-based sports

Parameters like cardio, endurance, and VO2 max often take the backseat in strength-based sports. While bodybuilders train with weights, they do it to induce maximum hypertrophy so they can display their physique on stage. In fact, many bodybuilders limit their cardio because they think doing too much cardio would result in muscle loss.

However, this could not be further from the truth. Greg Doucette is also an avid cyclist, besides being an IFBB Pro bodybuilder and former record-holding powerlifter. However, Doucette indulges in regular sessions of extreme endurance cycling without losing muscle. Rising bodybuilding star Sam Sulek also regularly tells his millions of fans to do cardio.

That’s because poor cardio and VO2 max scores may impact your training negatively. While bodybuilding and powerlifting are strength-based sports, poor endurance makes prolonged workout sessions difficult. Controlling how you breathe during each set can massively alter how much you can lift and for how many reps.

Hence, suboptimal cardio results in prolonged resting periods, impacting training intensity and total training volume. Hence, bodybuilders like Doucette advocate for strength athletes to improve their VO2 max. Monitoring and improving your VO2 max is important for another reason. Cardio-respiratory fitness also plays a crucial role in predicting lifespan.

Improving your VO2 max may help you live longer

While you may have heard that strength training is essential for combating the effects of aging and reducing mortality. Many experts agree that VO2 max is an even greater predictor of lifespan in humans. Absolute VO2 Max is calculated in milliliters (of oxygen) consumed per minute. Meanwhile, relative VO2 max is calculated in milliliters/kg/minute.

Based on these calculations, scientists have come up with VO2 max scores for different age groups. Men between 20 and 29 should have an ideal score of 52 or higher, while for females it should be above 44. The perfect score decreases to 44 for men above 60 and 36 for women. Most people training to increase their scores try to get close to or remain above 50. That’s because the better the score, the better your cardio-respiratory health.

Those with a lower score are far more prone to heart disease than those with a higher score. Hence, experts like Dr. Peter Attia believe improving your Vo2 max should be just as important as improving strength or lean muscle mass. In fact, Attia said that strength and muscle mass comes second place as the most crucial predictors of lifespan.

So, whether you are a bodybuilder, CrossFit athlete, or marathon runner, improving your VO2 max will improve your overall performance. However, it’s up to the individual to decide if they should take supplements to help improve their cardio-respiratory fitness.