Aside from how we look and feel, our ‘fitness age’ is a real thing and a sign of just how well our insides are holding up to life in general.
If you’ve never heard of fitness age, like I hadn’t until a few weeks ago, it’s the concept of calculating just how old our vital parts are in relation to physical performance. In other words, your Facebook profile might display a totally gorgeous and seemingly young version of yourself, but your heart and muscles may be moving along as sluggishly as a 65 year old’s. I know what you’re thinking “not me, I eat pretty well and I do a lot of physical stuff.” Well, apparently if you’re not doing exactly the right ‘physical stuff’ it’s all sort of meaningless– which is exactly why I was so curious (and kind of excited in the same way popping a pimple is exciting) to head to Canyon Ranch in Lenox, Mass. for a full fitness age assessment.
Back to the gym!
I didn’t really know what to expect– I imagined my body submerged in a weird fish tank with a million cables hooked up to me, monitoring my every breath, beat, and though. It was actually a fairly relaxed scenario. I met with a top fitness expert in the field who guided me through a series of tests to test first where I fell in relation to my 30 year old peers, and second, where I fell in relation to all the other breathing adult females out there. I looked him square in the eye and told him I didn’t want to know if I was 50 years old. Anything less than that, I could handle.
We started the tests with a series of guided long jumps (not that hard), vertical jumps (bless sports bras, bless them), a couple of “how many times can you lift this weight without getting fatigued” type tests, and then a guided treadmill run complete with all the wires and gadgets I had initially expected to test the level and way my body consumes oxygen. I also had a claw-like device (it didn’t hurt anything except my ego) measure the fat on my arms, abdomen, and calves.
The jumps went pretty well. As it turns out, the specific variety of jumping tests that Canyon Ranch employs are great indicators of one’s agility age (there we go again, another age we didn’t know we needed to worry about). Scoring agility is based on the ration of jump length or height to one’s own body height, and my 97% score put my agility at age 25. Obviously I was happy with this, but it didn’t really soften the blow for the aerobic power score I received for my performance on the treadmill.
Let me just say that I’ve had nearly 3 of the past 6 years of my life as a puking, huge pregnant lady. The roller coaster of hormones and projectile vomit kept me pretty far away from any level of cardio beyond walking to the grocery store to buy essentials and load up on the frozen yogurt I couldn’t get enough (I mean, the babies couldn’t get enough of). I’m pretty sure giving up 3 years of cardio sent me into a downward spiral of fitness. Anyway, turns out I’m 35 in terms of the way my body utilizes oxygen. I know 35 doesn’t sound bad, in fact, it’s not bad, but nobody wants to hear that any part of them is older than they actually are.
I put a fair amount of effort into eating the right amount of green veggies, going wild for herbal tea to cleanse my system, drinking organic juices, walking as many places as possible vs motorized transportation, and loading my skin up with nutrient rich creams– all in an effort to feel and look good. Finding out I’m older in terms of the system that supplies oxygen and life to all my other systems, eh, it wasn’t casual for me. But it was a welcome and needed wakeup call.
Rich Butler, the practitioner at the Lenox location who helped me, spent an additional hour creating fitness routines for me that would be tailored to the exact way my body metabolizes fat, muscle, and oxygen. He walked me through the moves that my specific muscle tone needed to build the types of muscle and body composition I was really looking for, which was more valuable than any time I’ve ever spent with a personal trainer. A trainer is great– but their knowledge is based more on motivation and the general, overall understanding of human physiology. A specific test like the Fitness Age test I took actually looks at the exact way your specific body performs, and that’s like comparing the difference between an off the rack dress to a custom made haute couture gown.
It’s been 2 weeks since I’ve had my Fitness Age Assessment at Canyon Ranch, and although I haven’t 100% followed the plan (Rich wanted me in the gym 4 days a week, 1 hour each time… I’ve made it 4 days for 45 minutes), I’m already down 2 pounds and can see much better definition in my abs. A couple pounds may not seem like a lot, but after 3 kids I’ve been itching to lose that last 7 to 8 pounds that just never seemed to budge.
I’ll report back in another 2-3 weeks to see if I’ve made more progress (and if I’ve been able to double my cardio time on the treadmill, as planned). If you happen to head in to have your own Fitness Age assessed, you should know that the test will require about an hour to complete and then another hour and change to compute and get a full run-through of how to improve. The assessment age will not be an exact figure, but it’ll be pretty close to one– I turned out to be ~33 with all factors considered, and plan to head back in a few months (after some calculated fitness moves) to re-test and hopefully improve that score significantly.
For more info on the Canyon Ranch Fitness Age Assessment, go here.
