What’s your Fitness Age?
I turned 40 this year and, while I feel like the years are slowly creeping up on me when I spot a strand of white hair, I don’t recover from a long run as quickly as before, or my kids make fun of me when I can’t figure out the settings of my iphone (grr!), I still do feel strong and fit enough to do the things I want. I guess that’s one of the benefits of living an active lifestyle.
So, when Fitness First invited me to try out BioScore, their new health and fitness assessment, which determines your biological or ‘fitness age’ compared to your real age, I jumped at the chance and squeezed it into my busy sched by dropping by the gym during my lunch break! Yes, it only takes an hour (if you go fast) to 1.5 hours.
I met with Essa, a trained BioScore specialist and Fitness First trainer. Prior to our meeting, she had asked me to download Fitness First’s CustomFit app (which I already had) and for me to fill in some details there.
Essa then briefed me about BioScore. Unlike other health fitness assessments, BioScore doesn’t look at bodyweight or body fat percentage, but focuses on a more holistic picture via a health, fitness, and lifestyle test. This wasn’t your usual fat caliper test they used to do at my old gym!
HEALTH TEST
The health test checked the status of my key vital statistics including height to waist ratio, blood pressure, and even my lung function.
Peak Flow Spirometry test to measure lung function
LIFESTYLE TEST
The lifestyle test was through a simple questionnaire that Essa handed me. It asked me about my lifestyle choices in and out of the gym, such as nutrition, stress levels, sleep and drinking habits to build a bigger picture of my overall health.
FITNESS TEST
The fitness test included a series of short and simple exercises to assess aerobic fitness, power, strength, flexibility, agility and core endurance. Exercises include a TRX row, standing jumps, core endurance drills, hexagonal agility, and a 500m row.
Good…
Good…
Fail! lol
Arrrgh. I was dying here. 1 minute is fine, but 3 minutes?!!
Essa shows me how to do the long jump.
Had. To. Row. 500m. As. Fast. As. Possible. I. Die.
BIOSCORE RESULTS
After the tests, Essa analyzed my results to determine my BioScore, which is the difference between my biological age and actual age. So, it’s either my BioScore was a plus (+) or a minus (-) score displayed in years. Gulp. I didn’t realize I would be nervous to hear the results. Suddenly, I was tempted to redo the plank test or the agility test to pull my score down!!!
Thankfully though, my results showed that my Bioscore result was a -4. Hear that, guys! I’m actually 36!!! I deserve a birthday cake today even if it’s not my birthday just to celebrate lol.
I highly recommend the BioScore assessment for anyone is just wants to get started in fitness and wants to determine his level of fitness or for the fitness enthusiast or athlete who wishes to know in what aspects of his health, lifestyle, or fitness can still improve. We’re all a work in progress and there’s always room for improvement, right?
As for me, I told Essa that I will make it my goal to strengthen my weak areas, such as my upper body, core, and agility. Sure, we’re getting older in years, but we can always get younger biologically!
Jaymie is better known as The Bull Runner in the running community. She is the founder of this award-winning blog, TheBullRunner.com, and the first and only marathon in the world that caters to first-time marathoners, TBR Dream Marathon. Jaymie has run 16 marathons all over the world and finished Ironman 70.3 twice. She dreams of running the world... literally.
