You are currently browsing the archives for the Health category

Polar BodyAge

January 28, 2012 Health / Technology
No comments

Yes­ter­day, I did a Polar BodyAge assess­ment at the gym to get a base­line fit­ness level to set train­ing goals and pace. It’s basi­cally a series of sim­ple tests to deter­mine your “phys­i­cal age” as opposed to your “chrono­log­i­cal age.” (Their “phys­i­cal age” is deter­mined by the median test results for test sub­jects at every “chrono­log­i­cal age” bracket.)

When I first came in, the trainer asked me about my goals. I told him I wanted to improve my strength, lung capac­ity, and flex­i­bil­ity. He also asked about my fit­ness his­tory and any health issues that might come up.

Then the tests:

  • The car­dio­vas­cu­lar test was sup­pos­edly a mea­sure of VO2max, but that test is nor­mally per­formed with a breath­ing tube while tread­milling to exhaus­tion. Instead, I just put on a heart mon­i­tor and lay still for about 5 min­utes. The mea­sure was based on heuris­tics with my rest­ing heartrate as the start­ing point. I got 48.0 ml/​kg/​min, “mod­er­ate” for my age bracket. (I expected lower, but this result might be because of the car­dio I had been doing this week.)
  • The strength test was per­formed by doing a bicep curl with a bar that is attached to a scale. I got 75.0 pounds, “fair” for my age bracket.
  • The flex­i­bil­ity test was per­formed by hold­ing a han­dle with a string while doing a sit and reach. I got 9.3 inches, “low” for my age bracket.
  • The body com­po­si­tion test was a seven-​site caliper test. I got 28.4% body fat, “high” for my age bracket. (I expected a higher body fat mea­sure, but that was based on esti­ma­tions based on com­par­ing my pic­ture to others.)
  • The nutri­tion test was a twelve-​question sur­vey about nutri­tion habits. I aver­aged 2.6 on a 1 – 5 scale (below average).
  • The trainer also mea­sured my height, weight, neck, shoul­ders, chest, waist, abdomen, hips, biceps, fore­arms, thighs, knees, and calves, but those do not seem to weigh into my BodyAge.

The final analysis:

I have a BodyAge of 33 com­pared to my actual age of 28. That means that I am as fit as the aver­age 33-​year-​old male. (I won­der about their study sample.)

The pro­gram rec­om­men­da­tions, pri­or­i­tized by effect on my BodyAge: lower body fat per­cent­age, improve flex­i­bil­ity, improve car­dio­vas­cu­lar score, improve strength, improv­ing nutri­tion habits. So basi­cally, the goals I had already laid out for myself.

Hashing

January 27, 2012 Drink / Exercise / Games
No comments

Thanks to Fitoc­racy, I just found out about hash­ing today.

Hash­ing, which is short for Hash House Har­ri­ers. It’s an old British colo­nial game the red­coats would play to get over hang­overs. Basi­cally, one per­son is a “hare” and has a head start on a race. The hare leaves scraps of paper (or chalk marks) as a trail for the “hounds” (other play­ers) to fol­low. It used to be trail run­ning but some groups do urban courses now. There is no fit­ness require­ment because the fast hounds have to slow down to check the trail and so every­one has a fair chance. The best part is that these events usu­ally stop at a pub for the mid­point and always end at one for the fin­ish line.

So it’s a children’s game with beer as a prize. How can you not be excited about that? I don’t think I can do the one tomor­row, but who’s down to check out an upcom­ing hash with me?

Or find one in your area with this site.

Eat Stop Eat

January 25, 2012 Books / Diet / Food / Read-A-Day 2012
No comments

Today, I burned through Brad Pilon’s Eat Stop Eat, another book from the sug­gested read­ing list at Lean­gains.

This one was focused on Inter­mit­tent Fast­ing. The read­ing was short and sweet, but did not leave me com­pletely con­vinced. He did add foot­note cita­tions, so I may look through those. The basic prin­ci­ple is that brief fasts drop insulin and raise glucagon and growth hor­mone, lead­ing to fat loss.

Assum­ing that the sci­ence is solid, I’m not sure how I would imple­ment it. There seem to be a lot of vari­a­tions on IF. The author rec­om­mends 24-​hour fasts once or twice a week. Lean­gains rec­om­mends a 16-​hour (14 for women) fast every day. Fast-​5 is another pop­u­lar IF plan that rec­om­mends a 19-​hour fast every day.

As for the rules — dur­ing the non-​fasting times, you eat as nor­mal. No extra calo­ries in prepa­ra­tion for a fast or as reward after a fast. Dur­ing the fast­ing times, only non-​caloric drinks and sugar-​free gum are allowed. From a strict calorie-​restriction per­spec­tive, I can see how this plan would work. And it would be rel­a­tively easy to do long-​term since there are no types of food restricted, but it seems to fall back to count­ing calories.

← Older Entries