VO2max is the maximum amount of oxygen a person can consume per minute and is a measurement of cardiovascular fitness. To measure VO2max (maximum oxygen uptake) directly, sophisticated and expensive laboratory equipment is needed, and the person being tested must exercise until exhaustion. But many tests that do not require sophisticated and expensive equipment can indirectly measure VO2max. More important, these indirect measures of VO2max do not require you to exercise to exhaustion. Instructions for two self-assessments that allow indirect measurements of VO2max (the step test and the one-mile run test) are in chapter 7.
