Tests to See How Well You Are Aging
Take these tests to see how well you are aging.
We all experience aging. But when we actively participate in the aging process, we can see capacity that may have been overlooked.
When you recognize agency—the capacity to think, choose and act in alignment with your biology and what matters to you—you begin to influence and redirect your trajectory.
Catch age-related decline early enough and you interrupt the process.
Imagine a runner who believed that’s all she needed to do to age well and continue participating in the things she loved doing. Marathons, 5Ks and 10Ks drove her life. Until one day, she stepped off a curb and fractured her ankle.
She visited a sports medicine doctor connected to one of her running clubs. His report surprised her.
“You fell because your ankle and foot are weak areas. Your foot is a maze of tiny stress fractures (cracks) from extensive running. The good news is your level of aerobic capacity and endurance will help you come back. It literally saves you from the decline that comes from idleness. A few months off from running should not be a problem. But your fractured ankle is a sign of what’s going on throughout your body, a harbinger, if you will.
Your weak type-2 muscles led to ‘loosey-goosey’ ankle joints and a decline in balance so nuanced, you probably didn’t feel it. Stepping off a curb and hurting your ankle is common, even for runners in their sixties. That’s because we all begin to lose muscle at around age 30. The only way to address the problem it is through resistance training.
I recommend you work with a physical therapist for 6-8 weeks. They will guide you with exercises that help the damaged soft tissue—muscle, ligaments and tendons—rebuild. For the long-term, you need to incorporate resistance training into your running. That means, after you recover with the physical therapist, work with a trainer to strengthen all of your muscles, upper and lower body.
A trainer will emphasize strength and power building moves, especially in the lower body. They will help you re-build type-2 muscle while boosting proprioception and coordination. Resistance training is a win-win-win. In the process of muscle development, you will offset age-related decline by building new muscle and bone. Your trainer will guide you in additional balance exercises. If you commit to resistance and balance exercises, long-term, you will build the capacity to continue running into your later decades.”
Awaken your latent capacity and see the power in your hands to interrupt decline (at any age), recover, rebuild and maintain what you have. Your body will provide the evidence.
Take these tests to see how well you are aging because aging better is possible at any age.
Below are some tests to help determine how you are aging.
Once you get a baseline or if you find weak areas, make an effort to begin engaging. Like our runner friend, it is still possible to rebuild weak ankles, sore knees, hips, manage sciatica pain and even improve chronic conditions like high blood pressure.
Note: The biggest gap in the aging-better arena is between knowing and doing. Some of these tests are similar but not identical. I provide you with an array of choices to help you find what resonates and what may help you stay with your age-better effort.
*The Old Man Test
This is an interesting and revealing mobility, balance, core strength, flexibility, and stability test. Playfully called the “old man test,” you put on your socks and shoes while standing on one leg. Like many of these tests, it is not a scientific fitness test. But it will give you a rough idea of muscle loss and the need to actively participate in your aging process.
*Test yourself: How strong are you?
This chair exercise tests both your strength and power. Strength is measured by whether you can get up off the chair and power is measured by how quickly you can do it.
*Fitness Test for Healthy Aging
Study Says This Fitness Test May Reveal How Well You’re Aging.
*Simple Test From the CDC
Sheds light on how you are aging.
*Five Quick Tests
To help you see how well you’re aging.
*Four At-Home Fitness Tests
Tests for Aging and Longevity.
Sources for Tests to See How Well You Are Aging
National Library of Medicine
Lack of Exercise is a Major Cause of Chronic Diseases
Highlights:
Physical inactivity is a primary cause of most chronic diseases.
The research: physical activity/exercise is examined as primary prevention against 35 chronic conditions.
Conclusive evidence exists that physical inactivity is one important cause of most chronic diseases.
Physical activity primarily prevents, or delays, chronic diseases, implying that chronic disease need not be an inevitable outcome during life.
National Library of Medicine
Skeletal Muscle Aging and the Mitochondria
Highlights:
The decline in human muscle mass and strength is a hallmark of the aging process.
A growing body of research in the areas of bioenergetics and protein turnover has placed the mitochondria at the center of this process.
This research demonstrates that unless an active life style is rigorously followed, skeletal muscle mitochondrial decline occurs as humans’ age.
There is no doubt however, rigorous exercise ameliorates reductions of mitochondrial function in aging skeletal muscle and understanding its effects on skeletal muscle mitochondria have come to the forefront of aging research.
The Cleveland Clinic, Proprioception
Highlights:
Proprioception is your body’s ability to sense its own position and movements. It’s an automatic or subconscious process.
Proprioception involves all the skeletal muscles and joints in your body. Because of this, physical therapy—type training exercises will help improve your proprioception. It will target specific joints and muscles. They may also strengthen your sense of balance, like one-legged balance or walking in a straight line (like on a balance beam).
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Categorized in: Art of Aging, Fly Fisher Fitness