The 12-minute run is very repeatable, but underestimates low VO₂max and overestimates high VO₂max
Is the Cooper test accurate?
The finding
Reliability was very high (φ = 0.96) and there was no mean difference from the lab, but the error depended on fitness: low values read too low, high values too high.
- Authors
- Penry JT, Wilcox AR, Yun J
- Published
- Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 25(3):597–605 · 2011
- Evidence
- Read in the primary source; numbers checked.
- Source
- doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181cc2423
How it was studied
60 people (mean age 21.8) ran three trials; 21 of them also had a lab treadmill test.
What it does not show
Young adults and a small sample, not middle-aged or older people.
What Longstanding does with it
High repeatability is what a quarterly re-test needs. The fitness-dependent bias is why the result is still labelled an estimate.