Thursday fitness fun fact

How fit are you? Here's a link to the online President's Challenge Adult Fitness Test which you can take online once you've done the exercises. Also, here's a story on the test.

adultfitnesstest.org

President's Challenge boosts fitness goals

By Kim Painter, USA TODAY Baby-boom fitness icon Denise Austin is not only fitter than I am, she's nicer: Told that I had failed to touch my toes (by 4 inches) and could manage just five push-ups on my President's Challenge Adult Fitness Test, Austin could have laughed. Instead, she said: "Oookay … Well, you have a lot of room for improvement."

That's true — and I suspect it's true for many of the more than 70,000 Americans who have taken the new test since it went online (adultfitnesstest.org) less than a month ago. The President's Council on Physical Fitness, which devised the test, has no way to track scores, says council executive director Melissa Johnson. But its sheer popularity, she says, suggests that a lot of folks are getting a much-needed kick in the … exercise routine.

The adult version is shorter than the one we all remember taking in gym class. There's no rope climb or flexed-arm hang. Instead, adults are put through four tasks that measure three elements of fitness: aerobic capacity, strength and flexibility.

 

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The idea is that people will take the test, see where they stand and be reminded that fitness is a many-splendored thing.

 

"We want people to be aware of all of the elements of physical fitness," says Austin, a council member. Too often, she says, people adopt routines that work their hearts, firm their muscles or stretch their bodies, but don't do it all.

Case in point: me. For the past two years, I've worn a pedometer (step-counter) to nudge myself to be more active. As a result, I now log an average of 10,000 or more steps a day. To accomplish that, I take a brisk 30- to 45-minute walk most days.

But strength training? Flexibility exercises? I don't do them. I know I should, but I don't like that kind of exercise. It's hard for me. I tried a yoga class once: It hurt.

So, did the presidential test have my number? It certainly did. Here's how I scored, compared with other 48-year-old women:

•Aerobic fitness: 90th percentile. I walked a mile in 13 minutes, 59 seconds, ending with a respectably elevated heart rate of 108 beats per minute. As I said, I owe it all to my pedometer.

•Muscular strength, as measured by half sit-ups: 60th percentile. I did 34 in a minute. Not bad. Not great.

•Muscular strength, as measured by push-ups: 15th percentile. As I've admitted, I did just five. And, yes, these were girl-style, with knees on the floor. After five, my nose was on the floor, too.

• Flexibility: 10th percentile. For the torturous sit-and-reach test, I sat on the floor with my legs stretched before me and reached for my toes. I made it just past midshin.

The numbers, by the way, are based on people tested at YMCAs and the non-profit Cooper Institute. A score in the 10th percentile means 90% of women my age did better on that reach test.

So, I asked Austin whether I really had to join a gym or take another (shudder) yoga class. Nope — she said I could do myself a lot of good just by repeating the push-ups and some stretching exercises every couple of days, trying to go a little farther each time. Daily sit-ups would be nice, she said, and lifting some 5-pound weights wouldn't hurt.

People who can't do even one standard push-up, she said, could try wall push-ups. "You can't believe what a great wall push-up does for you," she said. "It all helps."

Message received.

Good Post Boner I'll try the test later and Dave you don't count your out of country, I don't want you raising the bar!!!!! C'ya Rocky Top

Interesting thought, RockyTop.....who is the fittest man in the locker room? I think I be puttin' my money on Dave as well but like you said, he doesn't count since he's in Japan.

Boner

 I know RockyTop, the intensity level of my training program is so high that I have been banned from taking the President's Physical Fitness text. Evidently the combination of more than one insane form of exercise more than one day of the week is classified "illegal substance." That is there's just too much substance there for it to be ethical! Bwahaha!

Let's see:  For aerobic fitness, I can walk to the refrigerator or pantry using my cane.  Muscular sit-ups using half sit-ups in reverse I can bend in my chair to reach the remote control, dvd, or cd which are all within easy reach.  Muscular strength using push-ups I can't even imagine.  If I'm having a bad day but don't need the rollator, I'll use my steel four-footed cane.  Since it's steel and not aluminum it's really heavy.  I don't do push ups.  I do push-offs when I'm trying to get up out of some chairs and have to push on a chair and cane at the same time.  Flexibility is weird.  Even at my highest weight of 571, I could always bend from the waist and pick up a coin off of  the floor without bending my knees ( I might get dizzy standing back up).  I always thought that was more a matter of arm and trunk lengths compared to leg length, i.e., if you have long legs, bending down to pick something up without bending your knees would be harder.  I can't do any floor exercises because I can't get up from the floor.  That's why I have a cell phone--to call for help in standing up.