# Two minutes of sprinting a week can raise your VO2 max about 8% URL: https://sciencebased.news/sprint-intervals/ Published: 2026-10-10 Updated: 2026-10-30 Claim: Just a few minutes of sprinting a week can raise your VO2 max. Grade: Solid What to do: - On a stationary bike, sprint all-out for 20 seconds, twice per session, with 2 to 3 minutes of easy pedaling before, between and after. That is about 10 minutes. - Do it three times a week. Start with 10-second sprints and reach 20 seconds by week four. - Expect about 8% more VO2 max in 2 to 12 weeks. More sprints per session added nothing, and one sprint was not enough. - Safety: if you have heart disease, chest pain on effort or blood pressure that is not controlled, ask your doctor before going all-out. - Not proven: that it works as well after 60, or that the gain makes you live longer. # Two minutes of sprinting a week can raise your VO2 max about 8% *Evidence check, October 10, 2026. Updated October 30, 2026.* > **The claim:** Just a few minutes of sprinting a week can raise your VO2 max. > > **Our grade: Solid.** Across 93 trials with 1,188 untrained adults, all-out bike sprints raised VO2 max 8.3% in 2 to 12 weeks. Most people in the trials were young, and nobody has tested whether the gain makes you live longer. ![A woman in her 50s sprinting hard on a stationary bike in a gym, leaning forward with both hands on the handlebars](https://sciencebased.news/images/sprint-intervals-hero-2.jpg) Nora is 51, with an exercise bike in the spare room and ten minutes before work. The cardio advice she hears starts at 150 minutes a week. So do ten minutes on the bike count? Cardio fitness is one of the strongest signs of how long you will live [8], and time is the usual reason people skip it. The answer comes from 93 training studies and from a count of how many sprints each one used. ## Where the claim came from On October 9, Siim Land posted a video called "Just 5 Min a Week of This to Increase VO2 Max" [1]. VO2 max is how much oxygen your body can use at full effort. It is the standard measure of cardio fitness. His words: "Just a few minutes of sprinting can increase your aerobic fitness and VO2 max, as long as you get the intensity right." His workout is three 20-second all-out sprints with two minutes of easy pedaling between them, three days a week. He adds that this "can definitely get you to 50." He cites a 2017 review of 34 studies [3]. That review has just been redone with more than twice the data. ## 93 trials: VO2 max rose 8.3% The 2026 review pooled 78 studies holding 93 training trials, with 1,188 people in all [2]. Everyone was untrained. Everyone sprinted on a stationary bike as hard as they could for 10 to 30 seconds, rested, and repeated. The programs ran 2 to 12 weeks. VO2 max rose 8.3% on average [2]. The average person started at about 39 (the units are milliliters of oxygen per kilogram per minute). An 8.3% gain is roughly 3 points. ![Animation still: a cyclist in an all-out sprint, heart at 162 beats per minute, pumping blood to a muscle cell, with an oxygen gauge at 100 percent of VO2 max during the fourth of four sprints](https://sciencebased.news/images/sprint-intervals-animation.jpg) *Tap to play (20 seconds). A classic sprint workout, four 30-second sprints, shown from the heart to the muscle, and what weeks of it do to VO2 max.* About half the trials, 49 of 93, had no comparison group. That is a weakness. The 44 that had one found about the same gain [2]. ## More sprints added nothing The classic sprint workout is four to six 30-second sprints. With rests, it takes about 30 minutes. The reviewers asked whether all those sprints are needed. They are not. Each extra sprint per session changed the gain by −0.04%, which is zero [2]. Sprinting for 30 seconds was no better than 20. ![Scatter chart of 93 sprint training trials. Each dot is one trial, placed by the most sprints done in a session, from 2 to 24, and by the percent gain in VO2 max, from minus 2.5 to plus 21 percent. The dots form a flat band around the 8.3 percent average line. The 12 trials with two sprints per session, in red, averaged plus 9.4 percent.](https://sciencebased.news/images/sprint-intervals-chart.png) The 12 trials that used just two sprints per session, with 180 people, gained 9.4% on average [2]. In the first of them, 29 sedentary adults were assigned at random to train or not. The training was a 10-minute easy ride with two 20-second sprints, three times a week. After six weeks VO2 max was up 15% in the men and 12% in the women [4]. One trial put a short sprint workout against the long kind. Sedentary men did three 20-second sprints inside 10 minutes, or 45 minutes of steady cycling, three times a week. After 12 weeks both groups were up 19% [5]. It was small: 9 and 10 men. There is a floor. When 30 people were randomized to a single 20-second sprint per session or no training, VO2 max did not change [6]. What did add fitness was time. Each extra week of training added 0.7% [2]. So back to Nora. Her ten minutes count, if two or three of the efforts inside them are truly all-out. The surprise in the data is that a longer, harder session would not have bought her more. ## What we don't know Most people in these trials were in their 20s. The average age was 27, and only two trials had an average age over 60. They had 19 people between them, lasted three weeks, and found +5.0% and −0.7% [2]. The four trials in people aged 46 to 49 found gains of 4.7% to 14.3%. No trial ran longer than 12 weeks, so nobody knows where the gain levels off [2]. That is the problem with "get you to 50." From a start of 39, an 8% gain gets you to about 42. And nobody has shown that a VO2 max raised by sprints makes you live longer. In studies that follow large groups for years, each 3.5-point step up in fitness goes with 11% to 17% fewer deaths [8, 9]. Those studies compare people who are fit with people who are not. They don't test what happens when you get fitter. ## Our grade | Claim | Evidence | Grade | |---|---|---| | A few all-out sprints a week raise VO2 max about 8% | 93 trials, 1,188 untrained adults, 2 to 12 weeks | Solid | | Two or three sprints work as well as six | Comparison across the 93 trials; one small head-to-head trial | Promising | | It works as well after 60 | Two trials, 19 people, 3 weeks | Weak | | Sprints alone get your VO2 max to 50 | No trial ran past 12 weeks | Unproven | | The gain makes you live longer | Fitness and survival are linked in cohort studies; no trial | Weak | | Overall: a few minutes of sprinting can raise your VO2 max | Many trials agree | Solid | The case for the other side: the trials were small, most had fewer than 15 people, and half had no comparison group. All used bikes. In 16 men with type 2 diabetes, average age 55, two-sprint sessions raised VO2 max 7% against 1% for walking five days a week, but neither program improved insulin sensitivity or daily blood sugar readings [7]. Fitness is not the only reason to move. What would change the grade: nothing likely for young adults. For people over 60, a trial of a few months with a comparison group would settle it. ## What this means for you - Use a stationary bike. That is what the trials tested, and it lets you go all-out with little impact on your joints. - Pedal easily for 2 to 3 minutes. Sprint as hard as you can for 20 seconds. Pedal easily for 2 to 3 minutes. Sprint again. Cool down for 3 minutes. That is about 10 minutes [4]. - Do it three times a week, as most trials did. The review found no clear extra gain from each added weekly session, so two may be close [2]. - Build up. The first two-sprint trial started with 10-second sprints and reached 20 seconds by week four [4]. - All-out means all-out. If you could keep going at the end of 20 seconds, it was not a sprint. One sprint per session was not enough [6]. - Keep going. Fitness rose with each extra week, up to the 12 weeks tested [2]. - If you have heart disease, chest pain on effort or blood pressure that is not controlled, ask your doctor before going all-out. The trials were mostly in young adults. - Don't drop your walks. In men with diabetes, sprints beat walking for fitness and only matched it for blood pressure [7]. ## What's next The reviewers ask for two kinds of trial: ones that find the smallest dose that works, and ones that run longer than 12 weeks to see where the gain stops [2]. Trials in people over 60 are the other gap. For what a higher VO2 max is linked to, see [the five health levers](/five-health-levers/). Sprints train your heart and lungs; for the muscle side, see [how much protein you need](/protein-target/). Hard intervals also raise MOTS-c, a peptide your muscles make: ten 1-minute bouts raised it nearly 12-fold in the muscle of 10 young men [10]. Whether the vial version helps people is in [our MOTS-c check](/mots-c/). If a heart check finds a narrowed aortic valve, see [replacing a narrowed heart valve early](/early-valve-replacement/). ## Sources 1. Land S. Just 5 Min a Week of This to Increase VO2 Max. YouTube video, October 9, 2026. Quotes from the video's transcript. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox4CCAVprUE 2. Hutchinson M, Kinghorn DJ, Hall ECR, Metcalfe RS, Paval DR, Gallagher IJ, Vollaard NBJ. Number of Sprint Repetitions in a Sprint Interval Training Session Does Not Moderate Improvements in V̇O2max With Training: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. *Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports*, 2026. 78 studies, 93 trials, 1,188 untrained adults, all-out cycling sprints, 2 to 12 weeks; 44 trials had a comparison group. No funding or conflicts reported. [doi:10.1111/sms.70347](https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.70347) 3. Vollaard NBJ, Metcalfe RS, Williams S. Effect of Number of Sprints in an SIT Session on Change in V̇O2max: A Meta-analysis. *Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise*, 2017. 34 studies, 38 trials. [doi:10.1249/MSS.0000000000001204](https://doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0000000000001204) 4. Metcalfe RS, Babraj JA, Fawkner SG, Vollaard NBJ. Towards the minimal amount of exercise for improving metabolic health: beneficial effects of reduced-exertion high-intensity interval training. *European Journal of Applied Physiology*, 2012. 29 sedentary adults, randomized to training or no training, 6 weeks. [doi:10.1007/s00421-011-2254-z](https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-011-2254-z) 5. Gillen JB, Martin BJ, MacInnis MJ, Skelly LE, Tarnopolsky MA, Gibala MJ. Twelve Weeks of Sprint Interval Training Improves Indices of Cardiometabolic Health Similar to Traditional Endurance Training despite a Five-Fold Lower Exercise Volume and Time Commitment. *PLoS One*, 2016. 25 sedentary men in three groups (9 sprint, 10 steady cycling, 6 no training), 12 weeks. [doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0154075](https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0154075) 6. Songsorn P, Lambeth-Mansell A, Mair JL, Haggett M, Fitzpatrick BL, Ruffino J, Holliday A, Metcalfe RS, Vollaard NBJ. Exercise training comprising of single 20-s cycle sprints does not provide a sufficient stimulus for improving maximal aerobic capacity in sedentary individuals. *European Journal of Applied Physiology*, 2016. 30 adults, randomized to training or no training, 4 weeks. [doi:10.1007/s00421-016-3409-8](https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-016-3409-8) 7. Ruffino JS, Songsorn P, Haggett M, Edmonds D, Robinson AM, Thompson D, Vollaard NBJ. A comparison of the health benefits of reduced-exertion high-intensity interval training (REHIT) and moderate-intensity walking in type 2 diabetes patients. *Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism*, 2017. 16 men with type 2 diabetes, crossover, 8 weeks of each program. [doi:10.1139/apnm-2016-0497](https://doi.org/10.1139/apnm-2016-0497) 8. Lang JJ, Prince SA, Merucci K, et al. Cardiorespiratory fitness is a strong and consistent predictor of morbidity and mortality among adults: an overview of meta-analyses representing over 20.9 million observations from 199 unique cohort studies. *British Journal of Sports Medicine*, 2024. 26 systematic reviews of cohort studies, observational. [doi:10.1136/bjsports-2023-107849](https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2023-107849) 9. Kodama S, Saito K, Tanaka S, et al. Cardiorespiratory fitness as a quantitative predictor of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular events in healthy men and women: a meta-analysis. *JAMA*, 2009. 33 cohort studies, 102,980 participants for all-cause mortality, observational. [doi:10.1001/jama.2009.681](https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2009.681) 10. Reynolds JC, Lai RW, Woodhead JST, Joly JH, Mitchell CJ, Cameron-Smith D, et al. MOTS-c is an exercise-induced mitochondrial-encoded regulator of age-dependent physical decline and muscle homeostasis. *Nature Communications*, 2021. Mouse experiments, plus 10 young men who did ten 1-minute cycling bouts; muscle biopsies before and after. [doi:10.1038/s41467-020-20790-0](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20790-0)