Renwick et al. 2024, Individual VO2max response to exercise: systematic review and meta-analysis

This systematic review and meta-analysis (24 RCTs including a non-exercise comparator, published in Sports Medicine, Vol. 54, pp. 3069–3080) examined whether genuine inter-individual differences in VO2max trainability exist. The authors found that the majority of variation in observed change scores across single interventions is attributable to measurement error rather than true biological differences in responsiveness, and concluded there is not strong evidence that genuine high and low VO2max responders can be identified from single training interventions. The finding directly qualifies the HERITAGE Family Study’s wide range of individual responses. Moderate evidence.