01/31/2026
Assess, program for improvement, reassess.
Cardiovascular fitness exists on a spectrum, and that spectrum represents your body’s ability to create energy at different exercise intensities. If you want to improve your cardiovascular fitness, you need to first determine where you are currently (with some sort of assessment, like a V02 Max assessment), then you need a game plan to make improvements, then finally you need to reassess to see if the plan was effective. If you cannot access a V02 Max assessment, a simple baseline assessment would be the Cooper 12-minute Test. There are a number of other ways that you can take a baseline assessment such as ski, row, bike, or other variation of an FTP assessment (focusing on wattage), or a timed distance-based performance test running, biking, etc. Regardless of how you decide to determine your baseline, the best way to improve is to figure out where you are, come up with a game plan for improvement, and then retest to see if the game plan worked.
EnduranceTraining StrongerEveryDay FitnessLifestyle
