What Your Yo-Yo IR1 and IR2 Score Actually Means

TL;DR. A Yo-Yo IR1 total distance of 1,200 metres lands roughly at 46 mL/kg/min of VO2 max, 1,800 metres at 52, 2,400 metres at 57 using the Bangsbo IR1 regression: (distance × 0.0084) + 36.4. The harder Yo-Yo IR2 uses (distance × 0.0136) + 45.3: 800 metres maps to 56, 1,200 metres to 62, 1,600 metres to 67. Both formulas come from Bangsbo et al. (Sports Medicine, 2008). The distance is the easy part. Where you sit on the percentile chart for your age, sport, and sex, and what to do with that read, is the rest of this article.

I have run the Yo-Yo IR1 every six to eight weeks for the last two years as my interval test of choice, because it punishes incomplete recovery the way team-sport play actually does. My personal IR1 range is 1,840 to 2,080 metres, depending on heat, sleep, and how much short-interval work I have done in the prior block. The distance is meaningful, the band around it is meaningful too, and most articles online stop at the formula and skip the part that decides what the number says about you.

IR1 or IR2: which Yo-Yo did you actually run?

The IR1 starts at 10 km/h and rises slowly. The IR2 starts at 13 km/h and rises faster. Run IR1 if you are a moderate-fitness team-sport athlete. Run IR2 only if you regularly post over 2,400 metres on IR1, where the test loses sensitivity.

The two tests look identical from the outside (20 metre shuttles with a 10 second active recovery between pairs) but the speed protocol is sharply different. The IR1 starts at 10 km/h and rises slowly. The IR2 starts at 13 km/h and rises faster. The IR1 is the right test for moderate-fitness team-sport athletes (high school, recreational adults, beginner academy players). The IR2 is the right test for highly trained team-sport athletes (professional soccer, rugby, AFL, elite academy). The two formulas are not interchangeable, and the percentile cutoffs are different.

Where do you actually stand on the percentile chart?

The Yo-Yo does not have a published FRIEND-style civilian percentile chart, because the test was designed for team-sport selection rather than population screening. The reference numbers come from the original Bangsbo cohorts and the published team-sport benchmarks. For the IR1, recreational male adults cluster between 800 and 1,400 metres. Trained amateurs sit between 1,400 and 2,000. Sub-elite team-sport athletes land between 2,000 and 2,500. Elite footballers sit between 2,500 and 3,200. The IR2 numbers compress sharply because the protocol is harder: recreational male adults rarely pass 400 metres, trained amateurs 600 to 900, sub-elite 900 to 1,300, elite 1,300 to 1,800.

The Yo-Yo rewards a different cardiovascular profile than the Cooper or the beep test: high stroke volume plus strong post-effort venous return matter more than they do on a continuous test, which is why some great 5K runners post unremarkable Yo-Yo numbers and some average distance runners post elite Yo-Yo numbers.

What does a Yo-Yo distance translate to in VO2 max?

The Yo-Yo uses two separate regression equations from Jens Bangsbo’s lab at the University of Copenhagen, both published in his 2008 review in Sports Medicine. The IR1 formula is VO2 max (mL/kg/min) = (distance × 0.0084) + 36.4. The IR2 formula is VO2 max (mL/kg/min) = (distance × 0.0136) + 45.3. Distance is the total metres covered before the second consecutive failed shuttle. Each shuttle is 40 metres (20 metres out, 20 back).

The reason most Yo-Yo apps just hand you a level number rather than the full regression is that the level alone is only loosely meaningful without the test version. The same level on IR1 and IR2 maps to different VO2 max values, and a non-trivial portion of the literature mixes the two without flagging which version was run. The Yo-Yo IR1 + IR2 calculator I built applies the correct Bangsbo equation for each version and shows the percentile band for team-sport athletes.

Is your VO2 max actually healthy?

A Yo-Yo distance that maps above the 50th FRIEND percentile through the Bangsbo equation is in the healthy band.

Below the 25th is where the mortality data flags risk. An IR1 distance under 600 metres for a 30-year-old male puts you inside that low-fitness band.

Above the 50th percentile for your age and sex on the FRIEND chart, yes. Below the 25th, that is the zone where the mortality data starts to look concerning. The Mandsager et al. Cleveland Clinic study in JAMA Network Open (2018) tracked 122,007 patients over 8.4 years and found that aerobic fitness predicted long-term mortality more strongly than smoking, hypertension, or diabetes. The Yo-Yo numbers map cleanly onto that chart through the Bangsbo regression. An IR1 distance under 600 metres for a 30-year-old male puts you inside the low-fitness band.

The practical framing is this. If your Yo-Yo maps to a VO2 max above the 50th percentile, you are doing better than half of the people in your age group and the mortality curve is in your favor. If you are below the 25th, the gap to average is the most cost-effective health investment you can make. The full review of the longevity literature, including the dementia and cancer cohorts that map fitness to disease-specific mortality, is in what VO2 max says about lifespan.

How does your distance compare to the world records?

The Yo-Yo IR1 has a theoretical ceiling of level 23.8 (about 3,700 metres). The highest verified score in published sources is Harry Grant’s 22.8 at the GWS Giants AFL Academy preseason in 2020. Most of the elite tier sits between 22.0 and 22.8 across Australian Football, English football, basketball, cricket, and rugby. The highest verified female mark is Ambrosia Malone at level 20.2 (Queensland Academy of Sport, October 2020). The Yo-Yo IR2 sees lower top levels because the protocol starts faster: elite soccer reference values cluster between level 20 and level 23. The full ranking is in Yo-Yo IR1 and IR2 world records.

For perspective: a level 22.0 IR1 (around 2,800 metres) maps to a Bangsbo VO2 max around 60 mL/kg/min, but the same athlete tested in a lab is usually reading 65 to 70. The Yo-Yo formula saturates at elite levels because the test stops being a pure VO2 max instrument and starts being a repeat-sprint capacity test. Lab tests by Norwegian cyclist Oskar Svendsen in 2012 still hold the verified upper limit at around 96 to 97 mL/kg/min, well outside what any Yo-Yo distance can describe.

What Yo-Yo distance do different sports actually require?

The Yo-Yo is a team-sport test, so the reference numbers are organized by sport rather than by job. The targets below come from published academy and federation benchmarks gathered across the European and Australian leagues.

Soccer and football. Premier League and Bundesliga first-team players typically post IR1 distances between 2,400 and 3,200 metres. Championship and second-division players sit 2,000 to 2,600. League One and amateur top-flight cluster 1,600 to 2,200. Youth academy entry usually requires 1,400 to 1,800 at U16 level. On the IR2, professional first-team players test between 1,000 and 1,800, with central midfielders posting the top numbers and goalkeepers the bottom.

Australian Football, rugby, basketball. AFL midfielders sit between 2,600 and 3,200 on IR1. Rugby Union backs and flankers cluster 2,200 to 2,800. NBA forwards and guards rarely test on the Yo-Yo formally but anecdotal benchmarks land 1,800 to 2,400. Cricket batters and bowlers tested on the IR1 cluster 1,800 to 2,400 for first-class players and 1,400 to 1,800 for county-level. The Yo-Yo is the most widely adopted intermittent test in elite team sport precisely because it tracks performance better than continuous tests like the Cooper or beep, especially in the second half of competition.

Why does the number move week to week?

Real VO2 max changes by about 0.5 to 1.0 mL/kg/min per month, which maps to 60 to 120 metres on IR1 and 35 to 75 metres on IR2. The 200 to 400 metre weekly swings come from temperature, hydration, pre-test fatigue, surface (hardwood and 3G turf score differently), and judge strictness on the 10-second recovery.

Test-day noise. Real VO2 max changes by 0.5 to 1.0 mL/kg/min per month at most in trained adults, which maps to about 60 to 120 metres on IR1 and 35 to 75 metres on IR2. The 200 to 400 metre week-to-week swings you see are almost always coming from temperature, hydration, sleep, pre-test fatigue, surface (gym hardwood and 3G turf produce different numbers), and how strictly the judge enforces the 10-second recovery. The full troubleshooting checklist is in why your VO2 max number keeps moving.

The shortest practical fix is to standardize the test conditions and treat any single Yo-Yo result as a noisy estimate. Run on the same surface at the same time of day, with the same warm-up, and look at the 30-day rolling average rather than the latest reading. The Yo-Yo is more sensitive than the Cooper to overnight glycogen status, and a player who tested under-fueled will lose 200 to 400 metres of distance on IR1 without any underlying drop in cardiovascular fitness. Eat the same pre-test meal every time you run it.

What should you actually do with your Yo-Yo score?

Three things. Use it as a baseline before a team-sport pre-season block. Re-test every 4 to 6 weeks to track the trend, not the magnitude. Compare against the published benchmarks for your sport and level, not against the friends you train with and not against the Premier League numbers from the records page. The Yo-Yo is a selection tool and a tracking tool, not a competition.

If your distance is below the relevant benchmark and you want to move it, the lever that works is repeat-sprint training matched to your test version. For IR1, two sessions a week of 15 to 20 × 30/30 (30 seconds hard, 30 seconds easy) at 90 to 95 percent of max heart rate moves the needle faster than long zone-2 work. For IR2, you need shorter and harder: 12 to 16 × 15/15 at near-maximal effort. The HERITAGE Family Study cohort moved untrained adults from sedentary to a 17 percent average VO2 max gain in 20 weeks, with the upper third of responders gaining over 25 percent. The lowest 10 percent barely moved, which is worth knowing before you blame yourself for slow Yo-Yo progress.

One last framing. The Yo-Yo gives you a distance, the Bangsbo conversion gives you a VO2 max estimate, the sport-specific benchmark gives you a context, and the trend over time gives you a verdict on whether your training is working. None of those four answers comes from a single test result run in isolation. The 1,840 metre run last Tuesday is the start of the conversation, not the end of it. The pre-season versus mid-season delta is closer to the end.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good Yo-Yo IR1 distance for a recreational athlete? About 1,600 to 1,800 metres puts a 30-year-old male at the median of competitive amateur team-sport athletes, mapping to a VO2 max around 50 to 52 mL/kg/min. Under 800 metres signals low aerobic fitness. Over 2,400 metres is sub-elite or above.

Should I use IR1 or IR2? Use IR1 unless you regularly post over 2,400 metres on it. The IR2 is built for athletes who saturate IR1, and it tests recovery capacity more than steady aerobic ceiling. Most adult amateurs will get a more useful number from IR1, and the IR1 numbers compare more cleanly against the published benchmarks.

Does the Bangsbo formula work for women? Yes, the regression coefficients are sex-neutral, but the reference benchmarks are different. Female elite team-sport athletes typically post IR1 distances 600 to 800 metres below their male equivalents at the same playing level. Use the version-matched benchmarks rather than scaling.

Want to skip the conversion math and see your Yo-Yo IR1 or IR2 distance, level, VO2 max, and trend over time instantly? Vo2 Maximizer runs both versions of the Yo-Yo test hands-free on your Apple Watch and iPhone, handles the 10-second recovery cue automatically, and applies the correct Bangsbo equation for the version you ran. The same app handles the Cooper, Balke, beep, and 1.5 mile tests when you want to cross-check the number against a continuous protocol.