Most people think far less about “training” or being jacked as they get into their golden years, aiming instead to maintain their independence and their ability to complete everyday tasks. That’s not to say that older folks can’t continue to perform impressive physical feats. Plenty of men and women in their 70s, 80s, and beyond are hiking the Appalachian trail, tearing it up in track and field events, and setting weightlifting world records. The “Iron Nun” Sister Madonna Buder is still competing in Ironman triathlons—that’s a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride, and a 26.2-mile run—in her 90s. If we’ve learned anything from the Blue Zones, those areas of the globe where inhabitants seem to have remarkably long lifespans, it’s that walking, lifting, pushing, pulling, bending, and climbing are well within the realm of human capability even for people pushing the centenarian mark. For my part, I still get after my Ultimate Frisbee games with guys half my age and put in a pretty respectable showing if I do say so myself.
For too many individuals, though, the last decades of life are characterized by declining physical and cognitive abilities, increasing frailty, and ever-present risk of injury due to fall. Once the downward spiral starts, it tends to accelerate at a precipitous rate.You might think that means we should be using different metrics to assess fitness as we age. I think it means the opposite—that we should define fitness similarly for young and old adults alike. Stamina and aerobic fitness, agility and balance, and power and strength never stop mattering for quality of life. At the same time, we wouldn’t expect even a fit 85-year-old to pass the firefighter competency test I described in my previous post. So how else might we measure those fitness parameters in an older population?
The Senior Fitness Test There are several established tests that researchers and practitioners use to measure fitness in seniors. Let’s look at one, unimaginatively but sensibly called the Senior Fitness Test, as an example. The SFT measures several important physical parameters, which ladder up to being able to perform basic functions like walking or running, getting in and out of bed, bending over, and lifting heavy objects. They are: - Lower body strength - measured by standing up from a chair as many times as possible in 30 seconds.
- Upper body strength - biceps curls holding a 5-pound weight for women and an 8-pound weight for men.
- Aerobic endurance - how many yards the subject can walk in 6 minutes.
- Agility - how many seconds it takes to stand up from a chair, walk 8 feet, and return to the starting position.
- Upper body flexibility - trying to touch fingertips behind the shoulder blades with one hand reaching over the shoulder and the other reaching up the back.
- Lower body flexibility - seated in a chair with leg extended straight, reaching for their toe with their hand.
The researchers from California State University, Fullerton, who originally devised this test in 1999 have provided normal range scores for people in their 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s (up to age 94), and they assert that this battery does a pretty good job of predicting who, based on current fitness, is likely to remain fit and independent in subsequent decades. This is a decent test that covers most of the important bases. I’d throw in balance, but that’s a minor quibble. I have no major arguments there. Qualitatively, I like it, but I have some suggestions.
Where I’d like to see changes is in the quantitative expectations. They’re testing the right attributes but I don’t think the tests are good enough. Seniors can do so much better than standing up from a chair to test lower body strength, or standing up from a chair and shuffling to another part of the room and back again to test agility. They are stronger, fitter, and faster than you think. Or at least they could be. In reality, these tests presuppose an extremely low level of baseline fitness—which, let’s be honest, is probably pretty accurate for the majority of older people. I hate to admit it, but these tests are the best the current crop of senior citizens can hope to pass. They are reflective of the times. |
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