VO2max and Longevity: The Strongest Fitness-Mortality Signal, Honestly Read

Summary

Low cardiorespiratory fitness is **among the strongest modifiable predictors of all-cause mortality** there is — in a cohort of 122,007 adults the least-fit carried a mortality hazard several times higher than the elite-fit, larger than the risk attached to coronary disease, smoking, or diabetes in the same model — AND the "optimise your VO2max / zone 2 fixes everything" framing overstates the precision: the mortality data are observational (the unfit are often unfit *because* they are already sick), the exact zone-2 prescription is finer than the evidence supports, and the lever that actually