Empirical Cycling Podcast The Watts Doc #11: FTP vs VO2max
Aug 27, 2019
They dissect how FTP and VO2max relate and where common testing protocols may mislead. They walk through a classic 1988 study that split cyclists by FTP percent of VO2max. They highlight large differences in time-to-exhaustion, fuel use, and lactate response at fixed VO2 percentages. They warn that applying uniform VO2max percentages can distort training and research findings.
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FTP Is The Practical Endurance Ceiling
- VO2max is the maximal rate of aerobic ATP production while FTP (maximal lactate steady state) marks the power above which fatigue accelerates.
- FTP always lies below VO2max and better represents the boundary between sustainable and rapidly fatiguing efforts.
Fixed Percent VO2max Tests Produce Mixed Physiology
- A single percentage of VO2max (eg 70–80%) maps to very different metabolic demands across athletes because FTP sits at different % of VO2max per person.
- Studies that pick a fixed %VO2max will therefore mix athletes above and below FTP, confounding lactate, RER, and time-to-exhaustion results.
Coyle 1988 Split Same VO2max Into High And Low FTP Groups
- Coyle et al. (1988) tested 14 male cyclists with similar absolute VO2max but split them into high (80–86% except one) and low (60–67% except two) FTP-as-%VO2max groups.
- The paper numbered subjects and plotted individual points, enabling subject-level comparisons across tests.