Cooper test: how to do it, chart by age and how to work out your VO2 max
By Luis Carvajal · Updated 1 October 2026
In short: the Cooper test means running as far as you can in 12 minutes. You take the distance you cover, check it against a chart by age and sex, and use the formula from the original study to estimate your VO2 max. It is an all-out effort. If you're just starting, or coming back after a break, there are ways to see whether you're improving without emptying the tank.
What the Cooper test is
Kenneth Cooper was a US Air Force physician. In 1968 he published a study in JAMA with 115 servicemen, all of them men. He had them run for 12 minutes on a track, then measured their maximal oxygen uptake on a treadmill in the lab. The two went closely together: the correlation was 0.897.
The point was practical. With a track and a stopwatch you could estimate the aerobic capacity of a lot of people at once, no lab needed.
How to do the Cooper test
These are the Cooper Institute's guidelines:
- Find a flat, measured course. A 400-metre running track is ideal, always staying in lane 1.
- Pick a mild day. Heat and wind change the result a lot.
- Warm up for at least 5 minutes. Walk, then jog easily.
- Run for 12 minutes. Try to hold a steady pace and cover as much ground as you can.
- Count your laps. Round to the nearest quarter lap. On a 400-metre track, five and a half laps is 2,200 metres (about 1.4 miles).
- Cool down by walking for 5 to 10 minutes.
Going out too fast is tempting: the first minutes feel easy and the last ones last forever. That's why the guideline is a steady pace.
Cooper test chart by age
To be clear: the 1968 study had no chart by age, and it didn't include women. The age and sex charts came later, and there is no single version. Depending on the source, the age bands, the categories and some of the distances change. This is one of the most widely shared. Wikipedia carries it, presenting it as one example among many, and so does Topend Sports. Use it as a guide, not a verdict.
Men (metres in 12 minutes)
| Age | Excellent | Above average | Average | Below average | Poor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20-29 | over 2,800 | 2,400-2,800 | 2,200-2,399 | 1,600-2,199 | under 1,600 |
| 30-39 | over 2,700 | 2,300-2,700 | 1,900-2,299 | 1,500-1,899 | under 1,500 |
| 40-49 | over 2,500 | 2,100-2,500 | 1,700-2,099 | 1,400-1,699 | under 1,400 |
| 50+ | over 2,400 | 2,000-2,400 | 1,600-1,999 | 1,300-1,599 | under 1,300 |
Women (metres in 12 minutes)
| Age | Excellent | Above average | Average | Below average | Poor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20-29 | over 2,700 | 2,200-2,700 | 1,800-2,199 | 1,500-1,799 | under 1,500 |
| 30-39 | over 2,500 | 2,000-2,500 | 1,700-1,999 | 1,400-1,699 | under 1,400 |
| 40-49 | over 2,300 | 1,900-2,300 | 1,500-1,899 | 1,200-1,499 | under 1,200 |
| 50+ | over 2,200 | 1,700-2,200 | 1,400-1,699 | 1,100-1,399 | under 1,100 |
If you land in "poor", it doesn't mean something is wrong with you. It means that today, on that test, you covered less ground than the reference. It's a starting point.
How to calculate VO2 max from the Cooper test
The 1968 data give a straight line that turns distance into estimated maximal oxygen uptake:
VO2 max (ml/kg/min) = (metres covered − 504.9) / 44.73
- 1,800 metres → about 29 ml/kg/min.
- 2,000 metres → about 33 ml/kg/min.
- 2,400 metres → about 42 ml/kg/min.
It's an estimate, not a measurement. The line was worked out with male servicemen, so for women or older people the error may be larger. Real VO2 max is measured in a lab, by analysing the air you breathe.
The Cooper test and the beep test are not the same
If you've been searching for a "Cooper beep test", you're probably thinking of a different test: the 20-metre shuttle run published by Léger and Lambert in 1982, often called the beep test. You run from one line to the other in time with beeps that speed up in stages, until you can't make it.
Both estimate VO2 max and both are maximal efforts. In the Cooper test you choose the pace. In the shuttle run the pace is set for you, and the test lasts as long as you can keep up.
The limits of the Cooper test
- It's an all-out effort. For someone without a base, twelve minutes flat out is a lot to ask.
- It also measures your pacing. Not just your fitness, but how well you spread the effort.
- It depends a lot on the day. Heat, wind, surface, sleep, mood.
- It can put you off. The review by Ekkekakis and colleagues on intensity and pleasure found that pleasure drops mainly above the ventilatory threshold. Finishing wrecked is no invitation to come back, as we explain in why people quit running.
Tracking your fitness without an all-out run
There's another way to see whether you're improving, and it doesn't ask you to empty the tank. It rests on two well-studied ideas:
- Same effort, fewer beats. If you repeat the same moderate effort, the heart rate you need to hold it drops as you get fitter. In a 2014 review, Martin Buchheit points to average heart rate during a submaximal effort as one of the most useful tools for tracking training status.
- Fitter, faster recovery. How far your heart rate drops in the minute after you stop is also linked to fitness, according to the review by Daanen and colleagues. With one condition: always measure it the same way, because the intensity beforehand or the temperature will change it.
Cycling has a protocol like this, the Lamberts submaximal test, with fixed stages below maximum. The logic works for running too: the same comfortable effort, the same conditions, and you compare yourself with yourself every few weeks. To make sure it's comfortable, use the talk test.
The Coached Run fitness test works this way. It's the same twelve minutes as the Cooper test, with the opposite philosophy: 3 minutes walking, 6 minutes of very easy jogging at a level where you can talk, and 3 minutes of walking recovery. The app looks at your heart rate on a comfortable jog, how much it drops when you stop, and how steady it stayed. You repeat it every eight weeks or so, and you never run fast once.
Coached Run
Coached Run is a running app for iPhone with six real-voice coaches who keep you company over your own music. No pace, zones or heart rate on screen: the coach uses the data for you and tells you if you're going too hard for the session. It includes the twelve-minute fitness test without running fast, which doesn't use up any of your three free runs. After that, a one-time purchase, no subscription.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good Cooper test result?
It depends on your age and sex. In the chart above, a man aged 30 to 39 is average between 1,900 and 2,299 metres, and a woman of the same age between 1,700 and 1,999. More useful than the chart is comparing yourself with where you were a few months ago.
What is the Cooper test chart for women?
It's above. The original study only included men, so the figures for women come from later charts and vary by source.
Is the Cooper test the same as the beep test?
No. The beep test is the 20-metre shuttle run, back and forth at ever faster speeds. The Cooper test is 12 continuous minutes at your own pace. Both are maximal efforts.
Can I do the Cooper test if I'm new to running?
It's not the best idea. It's an all-out test, and the Cooper Institute recommends a walking test for anyone who isn't regularly active. You're better off measuring how your heart rate responds to a comfortable effort. If you have any doubts about your health, check with your doctor first.
Sources
- Cooper KH. A means of assessing maximal oxygen intake. Correlation between field and treadmill testing. JAMA, 1968;203(3):201-204.
- Farrell S. 50 years of the Cooper 12-minute run. Cooper Institute, 2018.
- Wikipedia. Cooper test (reference chart by age and sex).
- Topend Sports. Cooper 12-minute run test norms.
- Léger LA, Lambert J. A maximal multistage 20-m shuttle run test to predict VO2 max. Eur J Appl Physiol, 1982;49(1):1-12.
- Ekkekakis P, Parfitt G, Petruzzello SJ. The pleasure and displeasure people feel when they exercise at different intensities. Sports Med, 2011;41(8):641-671.
- Riebe D et al. Updating ACSM's recommendations for exercise preparticipation health screening. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 2015;47(11):2473-2479.
- Buchheit M. Monitoring training status with HR measures: do all roads lead to Rome? Front Physiol, 2014;5:73.
- Daanen HA et al. A systematic review on heart-rate recovery to monitor changes in training status in athletes. Int J Sports Physiol Perform, 2012;7(3):251-260.
- Lamberts RP et al. A novel submaximal cycle test to monitor fatigue and predict cycling performance. Br J Sports Med, 2011;45:797-804.
- Foster C et al. The talk test as a marker of exercise training intensity. J Cardiopulm Rehabil Prev, 2008;28(1):24-30.