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Cooper test calculator

Twelve minutes, flat out, as far as you can get. That distance gives you an estimated VO2max and a maximal aerobic speed. Three more field tests sit in the other tabs.

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Which test for which track

Warm up for 15 minutes before any of these: easy jogging plus 3 or 4 strides. Skip it and you give back 50 m over the first two laps.

Cooper test (12 min)

VO2max = (meters − 504.9) ÷ 44.73

On a 400 m track, run as far as you can in 12 minutes at the most even pace you can hold. Going out too fast is the classic mistake. At 12:00, note where you stopped, to the nearest 10 m in lane 1. No track? A GPS watch works, give or take 2 to 3%.

The result is in ml/kg/min. In miles, it’s 35.98 × miles − 11.29. Cooper fitted it on 115 US Air Force servicemen, so it’s less precise for women and older runners. Your MAS from this test is meters ÷ 200, your average speed in km/h. It reads low: in a French study, students lasted 6 minutes on average at 100% of MAS and 14 at 90%, so a 12-minute average lands somewhere between 90 and 100% of your MAS.

6-minute run (half-Cooper)

MAS = meters ÷ 100

Same warm-up, same track, 6 minutes. Most runners hold MAS for 4 to 8 minutes, so a 6-minute average speed lands close to it, and Berthon and colleagues showed that the average speed of a 5-minute all-out run tracks treadmill-measured MAS well. If you only run one test, run this one.

Léger-Boucher track test

MAS = 7 + stage (km/h)

Cones every 50 m around a 400 m track, and an audio file that beeps when you should reach each cone. The speed starts at 8 km/h and rises 1 km/h every 2 minutes until you can’t keep up. Your MAS is the last full stage.

That’s how current recordings run it. The 1980 original started at a walk worth 5 METs and added 1 MET every 2 minutes, so take the stage speed from whatever scale your recording announces.

VAMEVAL

MAS = 8 + 0.5 × stage (km/h)

Cones every 20 m instead of 50, 1-minute stages, +0.5 km/h per stage: after 2 minutes at 8 km/h, stage 1 runs at 8.5 km/h, and the test ends when you’re more than 2 m behind a cone at the beep. French schools, the military and pro soccer clubs use it.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good Cooper test score?

Cooper built his equation on young US Air Force men, so “good” depends on your age and sex. As a rough guide, 2,400 m (1.49 mi) gives an estimated VO2max of about 42 ml/kg/min, typical of an active man in his 30s. 2,800 m (1.74 mi) gives about 51, and 3,200 m (1.99 mi) about 60, the range of trained club runners.

What is maximal aerobic speed (MAS)?

The slowest speed at which you reach your VO2max, your ceiling for using oxygen. You can hold it for only 4 to 8 minutes. French and Canadian coaches build intervals as percentages of it (say 6 × 3 min at 95% MAS), the way US coaches use paces from a recent race.

Why do other Cooper test calculators give a different MAS?

Some divide your 12-minute distance in meters by 205 instead of 200, or your 6-minute distance by 102.5 instead of 100. We found no study behind those divisors, and on the 12-minute test they make an existing underestimate worse. Dividing by 200 or 100 gives your average speed in km/h, which is what the research on these field tests measures.

Should I run the 6-minute test or the full 12-minute Cooper test?

Run the 6-minute test for MAS: six minutes sits inside the window you can hold MAS, so your average speed lands close to it. The 12-minute Cooper test answers something else, a VO2max estimate you can line up against Cooper’s age and sex tables.

Can I run the Cooper test on a treadmill?

You can, at 1% incline. The belt sets the pace instead of you, so expect a different number from the track. A treadmill result is only worth comparing with another treadmill result.

Guides that use this calculator

Sources

  1. Cooper KH. A means of assessing maximal oxygen intake. JAMA 1968;203(3):201–204.
  2. Berthon P et al. Eur J Appl Physiol 1997;75(3):233–238.
  3. Billat VL, Koralsztein JP. Sports Med 1996;22(2):90–108.
  4. Léger L, Boucher R. Can J Appl Sport Sci 1980;5(2):77–84.
  5. Blondel N et al. Int J Sports Med 2001;22(1):27–33.
  6. Cazorla G, Léger L. Comment évaluer et développer vos capacités aérobies. AREAPS, 1993.