Performing one or more verification VO workload(s) immediately after an incremental to maximal graded exercise test significantly increases the proportion of participants who meet the job-related aerobic fitness standard for structural firefighters.

Purpose: Graded exercise tests (GXTs) are commonly used to determine the maximal oxygen consumption (VOmax) of firefighter applicants. However, the criteria used to confirm VOmax are inconsistent and have a high inter-subject variability, which can compromise the reliability of the results. To address this, a verification phase (VP) after the GXT has been proposed as a "gold standard" protocol for measuring VOmax.