I exercise on a regular basis. Part of it is that I want to wake up looking like Gisele Bundchen one morning, but I know that is not going to happen. The real reason I exercise is that I want to be here for the long haul. I want to see what my children grow up to be, I want to not just be around, but be fit-bodied. I don't want to huff and puff at every step and have a set of stairs look like Mt. Everest to me. Exercise is so good for you for so many reasons and yet we avoid it like the plague. We park as close to the store as we possibly can, even if it means circling the parking lot 20 times instead of just walking an extra 20 steps. Well, I've got a serious motivator for you, right here, right now. It is a fitness calculator that will tell you your true fitness age. It's free, easy, fast, and will show you exactly where you stand fitness-wise and you don't even have to break a sweat, but maybe you should every once in a while.
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The Norwegian University of Science and Technology provides a fitness calculator on their website that will provide you with a VO2 max measurement, which basically tells you how well your body delivers oxygen to your cells. After much testing by Norwegian scientists I suppose, it has been found that this calculator is remarkably accurate.
All you have to do is answer seven questions and then hit enter and before you know it, you are told if you have a fitness age comparable to your actual age or if you are older or younger in terms of fitness than your chronological age.
So I used the calculator. It asked me my gender, how often I exercise, how long I exercise, how hard I exercise, how old I am, my waist measurement in centimeters as opposed to inches (the indignity of being faced with the truth still has me blushing), and my resting pulse. Then I clicked "calculate" and prayed that I wouldn't have the fitness age of a 70-year-old and you know what? I don't. My fitness age is pretty much what my real age is (42, in case you are wondering).
I'm glad I used the calculator because it helped me confront the circumference of my waist, which I have been successfully avoiding for years, but also because it reaffirms that exercise is something that I need to continue to do for myself. Yes, I'm overweight and would rather not be, but because I exercise my fitness age is still right around where it should be. When I changed my answers in the calculator to say that I hardly exercised, my fitness age went up to 59. So you see what a difference exercise makes?
I know we all want to be skinny, cut, and fit without having to lift a finger, but that's just not the way it works. I'm sorry.
Now, go calculate your fitness age.
Image via Thinkstock
