Longstanding vs VO2 Max Pro (Track Fitness Age)
VO2 Max Pro reads your Apple Watch VO₂max and turns it into a fitness age, trends and a shareable card. Longstanding reads the same number as one of ten tests, each against norms and the line for 85.
Checked against VO2 Max Pro’s own pages on
The short answer
VO2 Max Pro does one thing well: it takes the VO₂max Apple Watch already estimated, shows the trend, ranks you among people of your age and sex, and restates it as a fitness age. Longstanding reads the same Apple Health value but treats it as one test of ten, alongside strength and balance tests no watch can estimate, and gives each a line for 85 rather than a rank. If VO₂max is your whole interest, the single-purpose app is simpler.
What VO2 Max Pro is
VO2 Max Pro: Track Fitness Age is a free iPhone app that reads Cardio Fitness, age and sex from Apple Health. Its listing describes a Fitness Age (“how old your heart and lungs perform, based on your VO2 max from Apple Health”), trend charts over a week, month and year, a rank among people of your age and sex, widgets, a shareable “Fitness Pass” card, logging of lab or treadmill results back to Apple Health, and a way to prompt a 20-minute outdoor walk on the watch to generate a first reading.
The developer says health data stays on your iPhone, that the app is for general fitness and wellness and is not a medical device, and that there is no subscription: it is free with a one-time purchase for themes.
Side by side
| Longstanding | VO2 Max Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| What it measures | Ten field tests you do yourself: single-leg stand, 5× sit-to-stand, floor sit-and-rise, grip, dead hang, push-ups, farmer carry, VO₂max, zone 2 minutes and a four-flight stair climb. | Nothing itself: it reads the VO₂max Apple Watch estimated and presents it. |
| How often | A baseline, then a re-test every quarter. Nothing is measured in between. | Whenever Apple Health has a new reading. |
| Reference | Each result is a percentile against a named published table for your age and sex, labelled estimated where no clinical table exists, and read against the line you need today for your age-85 goal. | A rank among people of your age and sex and a fitness age; the listing does not name the table. |
| What else it covers | Strength, balance, floor rise, stairs, carrying: nine tests besides VO₂max. | VO₂max only. |
| Where the data lives | On your phone, with an optional iCloud or Google backup. No account and no server for your results. | On your iPhone, in Apple Health, by the developer’s description. |
| What you need | A timer, a chair, a wall, a bar, two weights and a staircase. A grip dynamometer for one test. A watch is optional, for VO₂max and zone 2. | An Apple Watch and an iPhone. |
| Cost shape | The baseline is free. One purchase, or a yearly one, unlocks re-tests, backcast lines and history. | Free, with a one-time purchase for themes; no subscription. |
| The age-85 question | The point of the app: every test has a line for 85, worked backwards to today. | Not something the listing describes; a fitness age compares you with your peers now. |
The big difference
Both apps rely on Apple’s VO₂max estimate for that test, and both should say what it is: an estimate that independent labs find reads about 6 mL/kg/min low on average, which can move a percentile by a band. Longstanding says so in words next to the number and names the table it scores against. Beyond that single test the products do not overlap: the app’s other nine tests are things you do with a chair, a bar, a stopwatch and a staircase.
A fitness age is a translation of a percentile into years, which makes a number feel personal but adds no information. The app keeps the percentile, and adds the one thing a rank cannot give: the line you need to be on now for the goal you set for 85, and how the gap is changing quarter by quarter.
Where VO2 Max Pro is the better choice
For a free, no-account, no-subscription way to watch your Apple Watch VO₂max with notifications, widgets and a card to share, VO2 Max Pro is the lighter tool, and it needs no quarterly session.
Longstanding is not for you if
You only care about VO₂max, or you want widgets and a daily glance. The app shows VO₂max once a quarter, next to nine other tests.
The research behind this page
- Independent lab tests find Apple Watch underestimates VO₂max by about 6 mL/kg/min
- Apple’s own validation reports a mean VO₂max error of +1.4 ± 4.7 mL/kg/min, against a projected reference
- The Cooper Clinic VO₂max norms are predicted from treadmill time, and run well above measured values at older ages
- Measured VO₂max norms (FRIEND) give medians of 48.0 and 37.6 mL/kg/min at 20–29, falling to 24.4 and 18.3 at 70–79
Everything on this page about the other product was read off its own pages on the date shown. Prices are not listed, because they change and a stale one would mislead.