Welcome to the Get FitFick guys quick and dirty tips to slim down and shape up.

Let's face it, big lungs are not sexy.

You don't see commercials on TV with big-lunged people traipsing through an exclusive nightclub,

and you don't generally brag about your lung size at parties.

But if you've gotten out of breath climbing a flight of stairs,

become frustrated by the inability to run up a hill during a 5K or a marathon,

or found yourself constantly sucking oxygen on the treadmill or in the gym,

then you know that oxygen capacity is a very important component of fitness.

But the benefits don't stop there, since there's

a direct link between a higher oxygen capacity and your ability to stay alive for a longer

period of time. Now, technically, your oxygen capacity is actually defined as the maximum amount

of oxygen you can use, and it's also known as VO2 max.

To keep it comparable among different ranges of fitness levels,

oxygen capacity is defined in milliliters of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute.

But you may also find it listed as liters of oxygen per minute.

For example, the average male athlete has a

V-O-2 max of 3.5 liters per minute and somewhere close to 50 milliliters of oxygen per kilogram

per minute. Lance Armstrong, who happens to be pretty good at cardiovascular exercise, has an

oxygen capacity in the high 80s. You can measure your oxygen capacity

by going to an exercise physiology lab and getting a VO2 max test or by approximating your oxygen

capacity with what is called a field test. Examples of common field tests to measure oxygen

capacity include the Astrand six-minute bicycle test and the

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