If your fitness age is higher than your chronological age, your chances of dying young from a host of diseases rises substantially, according to a growing body of research. The good news is you can find your fitness age easily using an online tool. And, if it exceeds your calendar age, you can start lowering it today by exercising right. To learn your fitness age, you’ll need to know your height in centimeters, weight in kilograms, and resting heart rate (which you can easily determine using a smartwatch or 15 second pulse test). You’ll also need an honest estimate of how hard and often you exercise.
Since 2019, studies using the calculator’s algorithm have shown that a relatively low fitness age is linked to substantially less long-term risk of heart attack, depression, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, brain shrinkage and dementia in middle-aged and older men and women. Just as important, if you develop a chronic disease, your symptoms are likely to progress more slowly if your fitness age is low.
The current fitness age calculator is free and maintained by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. First posted in 2013, its been updated and simplified several times and used by about 80 million people around the globe. The calculator is available at https://hvemereldst.no/en/. I'll be 59 years of age in just a couple of months, am active, take no medications, and took the test today. I've taken the test in the past as well. My results today show that I have a 'fitness age' of 48 -- eleven years younger than my chronological age. That's good news!
Wish your own fitness age were years lower than your calendar age? It can be. Just make sure you’re moving often and sometimes vigorously. Up-tempo exercise, the kind that increases your breathing and heart rate enough that you can barely carry on a conversation, strengthens your aerobic system over time and improves your VO2max, altering your fitness age. This type of exercise, though challenging, doesn’t need to be unpleasant. Instead, it can be brief, informal and even fun. Here are a few easy ways to start turning back your fitness clock:
- If you like to walk, look for a hill and stride to the top as quickly as you can. Return to the base and summit another time or two.
- If you have access to a treadmill or stationary bike, try 4 x 4 intervals. Ride or run at a relatively difficult pace for 4 minutes, rest by walking or pedaling lightly for 3 minutes and repeat that sequence four times in total.
- Jump, lunge and bop though a short body weight workout once in a while.
Exerting yourself vigorously for even a few minutes several times a week should soon improve your fitness age. Of course, outside of science fiction, none of us can actually rewind time. A low fitness age doesn’t make us truly younger or guarantee extra decades of life. Multiple factors besides fitness affect how long and well we live, including our genetics, nutrition, income and good or regrettable fortune. Fitness age only gives us a glimpse into whether our bodies seem to be functioning better or worse than those of other people our same calendar age. However, we can use that knowledge to inspire and maybe congratulate ourselves.
Gotta Run,
Paul J. Staso
- United States in 2006 (3,260 miles solo in 108 days at age 41)
- Montana in 2008 (620 miles solo in 20 days at age 43)
- Alaska in 2009 (500 miles solo in 18 days at age 44)
- Germany in 2010 (500 miles solo in 21 days at age 45)
- The Mojave Desert in 2011 (506 miles solo in 17 days at age 46)
- Various Photos From Mileposts Gone By
- Students Worldwide Who Ran With Me Virtually
- Roadside Sights From My Running Adventures
- Some Cycling Moments From The Past
