DO YOU KNOW YOUR FITNESS AGE?
All of us know our chronological age, and we sometimes use that as a measure for different life experiences. We also use it as a measure to estimate when we’re likely to die, barring accidents and premature health issues of course. But a new method is arising which seems to suggest that our intuitive way of using our chronological age for estimating lifespan may be inaccurate and misleading.
Because you see, your chronological age gives no indication of how strong your heart is, how overweight you are, how good your fitness is, and other such important factors that will determine your potential lifespan. So scientists at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, have come up with a measure that more accurately predicts a given person’s potential lifespan.
They call it the fitness age of a person.
Fitness age is determined primarily by your VO2max, which is a measure of your body’s ability to take in and utilise oxygen. VO2max indicates your current cardiovascular endurance.
It also can be used to compare your fitness with that of other people of the same age, providing you, in the process, with a personal fitness age. If your VO2max is below average for your age group, then your fitness age is older than your actual age. But if you compare well, you can actually turn back the clock to a younger fitness age. That means a 50-year-old man conceivably could have a fitness age between 30 and 75, depending on his VO2max.
The easiest way to reduce one’s fitness age is to exercise. Even twenty minutes of light exercise is liable to reduce your fitness age, and add years to your life. So get off that couch, and commit to twenty minutes every day.
