Who is behind Test Luc Léger?
My name is Jérémie, I live in Alsace, France, and I run this site. I am neither a qualified coach nor a doctor: I am an athlete who has been training for more than fifteen years and who checks every protocol against its sources before publishing it.
My first tests: the beep test in high school
My first contact with these tests goes back to high school. I took the Luc Léger beep test to find out my maximal aerobic speed (MAS) and my recovery capacity, ahead of the 3 × 500 m event of the French baccalauréat. That is when I understood what a well-run test is for: it tells you how fast to train, instead of running at random.
Using MAS to prepare a marathon
In 2012, I prepared for a marathon. I took field tests again to work out my MAS, then built my sessions around that figure, with a lot of hill intervals. My personal bests in running:
| Event | My best |
|---|---|
| 10 km | 42 min |
| One-hour run | 12.8 km |
| Marathon (2012) | 3:55 |
The rest of my background
I spent about ten years in the weight room, then discovered CrossFit and Freeletics: since 2012 I have completed nearly 700 sessions of that kind. I have also taken part in obstacle races, and today I play veterans' football.
All of this taught me something useful for this site: a test is only worth something if you take it under the same conditions every time. A badly timed audio track or a wrong stage table, and the number you get no longer means anything.
How I check the protocols
This site first ran on WordPress, with texts taken from various sources and never checked. In September 2026, I went through the tests one by one with a simple rule: a figure is only published if it comes from a primary source (the scientific paper, the test author's own document, the official text) or from two independent sources that agree.
This work led to fifteen errors being corrected, some of them online since the site began. A few examples:
- Beep test (Luc Léger): I listened to the official audio track again, stopwatch in hand. Stage 1 has 7 lengths of 20 m in one minute, i.e. 8.5 km/h, and the track stops at stage 20, announced at 18 km/h. The site's old table started at 8 km/h: every speed in it was 0.5 km/h too low.
- Gacon test: the table was four stages out. The document published by Georges Gacon himself gives 31 stages, from 10 to 25 km/h.
- Balke test: the protocol shown did not match the original, and the equation overestimated VO2max by about 45%. The equations of Pollock et al. (1976 for men, 1982 for women) have been restored.
- Brue test: it was credited to Luc Léger and Jacques Boucher. It is by F. Brue (1985), who published it as a variant of their test.
- VAMEVAL and Léger-Boucher: they were described as shuttle runs. They are continuous runs on a track, with markers.
The scoring tables for French competitive exams are copied from the official texts: the order of 30 November 2020 for firefighters and the order of 18 October 2012, amended on 5 March 2025, for the national police. Age-based VO2max norms come from the FRIEND registry (Kaminsky et al., 2015).
What I refuse to publish
When no solid source exists, I would rather tell you than make up a number. So you will not find on this site a French army selection scale (it is not public), a rating scale for the Harvard Step Test (the only one found relies on an incompatible variant of the formula) or a threshold expressed as a percentage of MAS (only one source found).
The date under each title
Under the title of each test, you can see the date on which its protocol was checked against its sources. Pages that have not been reviewed yet carry no date: read them with appropriate caution.
What this site is not
The calculators give estimates, not a diagnosis. A MAS or VO2max calculated from a field test is less accurate than a laboratory measurement. If you are returning to sport after a long break or have any doubt about your health, ask a doctor before taking a maximal effort test.
How the site is funded
The site is free and requires no sign-up. It is funded by advertising (Google AdSense) and by Amazon affiliate links: if you buy a product after clicking one of these links, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This income has no influence on the protocols, scoring tables or formulas published.
Contact me
Spotted an error, found a source that contradicts what I wrote, or have a question about a test? Write to me through the contact page, I read every message. You can also find me on LinkedIn and on X.