Fitness age

[Guest Robert Cavanaugh]

Those of you still receiving the email list to which Al Pater posts his interesting reports may have seen

[CRCOMMUNITY] Older athletes' age in fitness terms 'astounding, ' doctor says

Going to the actual published article provides a link to the on line calculator designed to measure fitness age versus your chononiligical age.  Here is the link.  I'll take the test later and [post my results here in this thread.  It would be interesting for others to do the same.

 

https://www.worldfitnesslevel.org/#/start

 

Bob

[nicholson]

Hi Bob:

 

Yes I saw that too.  But I am far from impressed by it.

 

It seemed to me that all it says is something everyone has always been aware of, which is that if you train you get fitter than you had been prior to training.

 

But it seems to me they are hoping - based on the kind of wording they used - their readers will think they mean you will live much longer if you exercise a lot.

 

But that is not what their data mean.  Their data mean that if you look at the 'fitness' of couch potatoes by age, it steadily declines.  So if a couch potato does some exercise training he gets fitter and therefore has the *fitness level* of someone lower on the couch potato age scale.  That does not mean that can be translated into lifespan effects - which it seems to me they would like us to believe.

 

Never forget (!) Dr. Henry Solomon, cardiologist Cornell Medical Center, in his book 'The Exercise Myth':  "Fitness has absolutely nothing to do with health."  (Based on the medical tests he administered to many heavily exercising patients who, he found, were on the verge of dropping dead in the street, according to their test results.)

 

Yes.  There is a modest exercise threshold level below which you will be in trouble:  bed-ridden little old ladies rarely last for long, and neither did Christopher Reeve.  So, yes, I exercise too.  But not too much!  And I do not expect it to lengthen my lifespan, although it may increase my productivity. 

 

Also relevant to this matter is that after a certain age (35 perhaps, I forget) mortality increases by a factor of about ten per decade.  So, in order to increase lifespan by as much as a decade it would be necessary for any 'treatment' to reduce mortality by 90%.  Their data need to be viewed in this light, I believe.

 

Rodney.

[nicholson]

Sorry.  Correction.

 

Mortality DOUBLES each ten years. 

 

So in order to increase lifespan by ten years any treatment would have to drop the mortality rate in half.

 

I should have checked this before writing it!  DUH.

 

Rodney.

[Guest Guest]

Good points, Rodney, but I too interpreted the article as you did.   I do think there is something to be said though about overall fitness contributing to average healthspan versus lifespan.  I believe a fit population has more enduring health than an unfit population.   Of course there are those outliers... I personally knew at least one well trained, 52 year old, tri-athlete who dropped dead during the swim portion of the event.

 

I am 67 and still work full time as a self employed landscaper and I know that I am in much better physical condition than my age related peers and I do not feel my age...not that I trully know how I am supposed to feel.  I started CR when I was 53 and remember at that time thinking age was beginning to catch up with me.  A visit to the doctor for a check up was all I needed to  kick-start me into CR which I had known about for the previous 14 years.  After a couple of months, my life changed dramatically.  The vigor of youth had returned along with  the exhileration of being alive.

 

I believe most people who follow a CR lifestyle are also more physically active than age matched ad-lib peers and thought the fitness age calculator an amusing tool at the least if not somewhat of a confirmation of our personal perception that we actually do feel younger. 

 

Bob

 

[nicholson]

Hi Bob:

 

Yes.  I would like to see conclusive (as if we ever see such evidence for anything!) evidence of where the exercise-benefit-threshold is, from a paper *not* written by people well known to have a vested interest in promoting exercise.

 

At least for now, I figure walking a considerable distance once a week at a brisk pace is close enough to optimal for someone aged 73.  And I do consider myself 'fit' compared with others my age.  [A couple of months ago I walked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back same day in 13 hours, without having specifically trained for it beyond my regular weekly long brisk walk.  My pedometer said that was 20 miles - plus the elevation change - but I think that number is perhaps 5% exaggerated.  I would like to attach a picture I took at the bottom, but don't know how!]

 

Rodney. 

[nicholson]

[Saul]

Hi Rodney -- how did you post the picture?

 

  -- Saul

[nicholson]

Hi Saul:

 

Unfortunately I tried lots of things and when one worked I had forgotten how I had done it!

 

I will try again and see if I can repeat it and make a note while I am doing it of what I am doing.

 

Expect to hear from me again later.

 

Rodney.

[nicholson]

 

If you can see it, this is a picture - taken from the top of the south side of the Grand Canyon - of the spot where I had taken the picture I had posted earlier of the river at the bottom of the canyon.  That spot at the bottom of the canyon is pretty much right in the middle of this picture:

 

And, if it turns out you can see it, here is what I did to post it (but I don't think this is the way I did it the previous occasion!):

 

For this one I joined postimage.org (free); uploaded the picture to their site; clicked on their button labeled 'direct link'; then clicked 'copy to clipboard'; then came to CRSociety clicked to reply to your message; pasted the link here and clicked 'Post'.

 

If that is an inadequate set of instructions let me know and I will do it again.

 

Rodney.

[Dean Pomerleau]

Having a URL to an image is the only way I've been able to figure out how to post a picture to this forum. But I'm pretty sure you're supposed to be able to upload an image to my media but for the life of me I can't figure out how to do it. And there seems to be nobody willing or able to help us with this issue at the moment.