Home > Fitness Testing > Tests > Aerobic Endurance > Step > ACSM Stepping Equation

The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) has an equation for determining a person's total gross VO₂ (the total rate of oxygen consumption during both rest and exercise), expressed in the units ml.kg^-1.min^-1. In this equation, f = stepping frequency in steps.min^-1, and ht = step height in meters.

VO₂ = [f × 0.2] + [f × ht × 1.8 × 1.33] + Resting VO₂

Example

For this example, we will use a bench step height of 12 inches at a cadence of 30 steps per minute (step.min^-1).

where:
f = 30 steps.min^-1
ht = 0.3048 meters (12 inches x 0.0254)
resting VO₂ (1 x MET) = 3.5 ml.kg^-1.min^-1.

VO₂ = [f × 0.2] + [f × ht × 1.8 × 1.33] + VO₂ resting

VO₂ = [30 × 0.2] + [30 × 0.3048 × 1.8 × 1.33] + 3.5

VO₂ = 6.0 + 21.9 + 3.5

VO₂ = 31.4 ml · kg^-1 · min^-1

---

---

Related Pages

• MET Tables — Energy Expenditure of Activities
• Procedures for several Step Tests
• Aerobic Fitenss Tests
• VO_2max norm tables
• About the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM)