Assessing VO₂ max may not be new, but it’s certainly having a moment.
The metric, once reserved mainly for endurance athletes, has muscled its way into the mainstream fitness and wellness space, boosted by longevity voices reminding strength-focused consumers that cardiorespiratory fitness is one of the strongest predictors of how long and how well we live.
Life Time has been here before. The upscale athletic country club operator brought VO₂ max and metabolic testing into the club setting back in 2005, long before longevity became a household word.
Now it’s advancing its push, with members able to book active metabolic assessments at all North American clubs.
Life Time notes that the testing reveals how many calories members burn at different heart-rate levels and whether those calories come primarily from fat or carbohydrates, with the goal of informing members how hard to train and how best to align workouts with their goals.
The experience involves wearing the cordless SpiroFit mask while moving on a treadmill or rower or another piece of fitness equipment. Results then inform personalized plans built by Life Time’s personal trainers, based on a member’s five-zone training profile.
“SpiroFit delivers lab-grade metabolic data with accuracy validated within one to three percent,” SpiroFit sports scientist Chad Goldberg said. “That precision gives Life Time members a reliable picture of how their bodies use oxygen and fuel—insights they can trust as they train.”
The rollout is a rare step in the land of fitness operators, especially one that is club-wide in North America. Competitor Equinox offers VO₂ max testing within its premium longevity program at select locations. Other than that, it’s been mostly reserved for boutique longevity clinics such as Humanaut, Fountain Life and SHA Wellness Clinic.
And if history proves correct, Life Time tends to be first when it comes to the desires of fitness and wellness consumers. The operator was early on pickleball, supplements, leaned into GLP-1s through its Miora clinics and is heavily investing in Pilates.
