Happy New Year.
I made two resolutions:
- To have a longer lifespan than Keith Richards who turned 80 on December 18, 2023. I’ll turn 75 in April and need to live at least 5+ more years.
- To be as fit as possible for the rest of my life. As I age my health and fitness will decline; however, I have a great degree of control about how slowly or rapidly this will happen. The geriatric curve is a graph of how fitness declines over the years. I want to flatten my geriatric curve, i.e., slow the rate of decline as much as possible.
Health Maintenance Objectives
According to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), the benefits of regular exercise include “improved cardiovascular endurance, muscular endurance, flexibility and balance. These are important factors in functional ability. In addition, participation in regular exercise can also positively affect pain control, self-confidence and sleep patterns.” Moreover, appropriate regular exercise will help maintain healthy weight and strong bones. Note that the different benefits come from different types of activities, i.e., not just cycling. You can read about the ACSM’s recommendations here:
Athletic Maturity Quiz
I use the concept of “Athletic Maturity” as a way of gauging how well you and I measure up to the health maintenance objectives of the ACSM. Because physiological decline starts when you’re about 50 years old the concept of athletic maturity applies to anyone age 50 and older.
The more mature you and I are as a athletes the more we’ve taken care of our bodies and the shallower the slope of our individual declines.
To find out, evaluate your physiological maturity using the following factors. Give yourself 1, 2 or 3 points on each factor in the table below and compare yourself to me:
1. Years riding. How long you have been riding? If you ran or did a similar aerobic exercise such as XC skiing before you started riding, then your general aerobic fitness carries over to cycling; however, as a roadie you need to develop specific muscle-firing patterns as well as cycling skills. Give yourself a half-year for each year of aerobic exercise immediately before you started riding. Example: you ran for six years and then took up cycling two years ago. You have (6 years x 0.5) + 2 = the equivalent of 5 years of riding experience. But if you ran for six years after college, took a long break and then started riding when you turned 50, you only have two years of riding experience.
I’ve been riding for almost 50 years.
2. Annual riding. To assess general aerobic fitness, how many miles (kilometers) do you ride per year? If you also run, cross-country ski, etc., calculate the number of hours you do this activity in a year and give yourself half-credit based on your speed on the bike. For example, you rode 3,250 miles @ 15 mph. You also ran 63 hours. 63 x 15 mph / 2 = 473 equivalent miles for a total of 3,723 miles.
I don’t track miles or even hours of riding and cross-county skiing. I just count the number of days. In 2023 I rode 103 days and cross-country skied 99 days, equivalent to roughly 2,500 miles.
3. Longest annual ride. To also assess aerobic fitness, what is your longest one-day ride of the year in miles (kilometers) with a speed of at least 12.5 mph (20 km/h)?
I also don’t track the length of my rides. The longest was probably 35 – 40 miles.
In my home gym I put on the Stones for the next three:
4. Number of pushups. To assess upper body strength. For men, how many standard push-ups can you do with only your feet and hands resting on floor? For women, how many modified push-ups can you do with your knees and hands resting on floor.
30 if I’ve been doing them regularly; only 20 if I’ve been slacking off.
5. Weight for 20 step-ups. To assess lower body strength. Hold a weight in each hand (using dumbbells or grocery sacks) or wear a backpack filled with canned food. One step-up is stepping up onto an approximately 8” (20 cm) step with your right foot and lifting your left foot up to the step, stepping back down with both feet, stepping up with left foot and lifting right foot to the step and stepping back down with both feet. While doing 20 complete step-ups, how much weight can you hold?
I can do 20 reps with two 19 lb. dumbbells, my body weight + 20%
6. Plank. To assess core strength, how long can you hold the plank? The plank is resting only on your feet and on your forearms (elbows under shoulders) with your body parallel to the floor.
I hate the plank but can hold it for 1 minute 5 seconds.
7. Body mass index (BMI). BMI is the ratio of height to weight to estimate body fat. BMIs are reasonably useful to estimate the body fat of large groups; however, may be misleading for individuals. Since athletically active people may relatively more muscle and less fat, the standard BMI may overstate the unhealthiness of a given body weight for fairly muscular people. Start by calculating your BMI here.
I’m 5’10” and weigh 175 lbs, so my BMI is 25.1, very slightly overweight; however, my BMI is probably overestimated.
If you can do at least 20 pushups and 20 step-ups with at least 20% of your weight, then compare your BMI to this scale, which allows for 10% higher mass due to added muscle.
Adjusted BMI for Athletes
Underweight | <20.5 |
Normal weight | 20.5 – 27.5 |
Over weight | 27.5 to 33.5 |
Obese | >33.5 |
My BMI is normal. However, two other tests suggest I could lose weight:
- DunLap Condition – My belly done lap over my belt.
- Belly Bounce – Standing in front of a mirror if I jump up and down a little my belly bounces.
8. Sit and reach. To assess flexibility sit on the floor with your legs stretched out in front of you with straight knees. Bending forward at the waist, how close to (beyond) your toes can you reach?
I can reach my toes.
9. Balance. To assess your balance, how long can you stand on one leg with your other foot lifted slightly off the floor?
5-6 years ago I practiced balance regularly and I could stand for over a minute on either leg. Now just 20 – 30 seconds.
Calculate your athletic maturity using the following table. For each activity give yourself 1, 2 or 3 points in the right-hand column.
Athletic Maturity
1 point | 2 points | 3 points | Your points | Coach Hughes points | |
1. Years of riding | 1-2 years | 3-5 years | 6 or more years | 3 pts | |
2. Annual riding | < 3,000 miles (5,000 km) | 3 – 5,000 miles (5-8,000 km) | >5,000 miles (8,000 km) | 1 pt | |
3. Longest annual ride | <50 miles (80 km) | 50 – 100 miles (80-160 km) | >100 miles (>160 km) | 1 pt | |
4. Number of push-ups | <10 | 10-20 | >20 | 3 pts | |
5. Weight for 20 step-ups | Body weight | Body weight + 10% | Body weight + 20% | 3 pts | |
6. Plank | <30 seconds | 30 – 60 seconds | > 60 seconds | 2 pts | |
7. Body mass index | Obese | Overweight | Normal | 3 pts | |
8. Sit and reach | -1” | -1” to +1” | > +1” | 2 pts | |
9. One-leg balance | <30 seconds | 30 – 60 seconds | >60 seconds | 1 pt | |
Total Points range is 9 – 27. | 19 pts |
The test is only an approximate assessment of fitness and depending on your interests and activities your total may not be truly indicative of your fitness.
My 19 points are the middle. I could ride more and ride longer; however, I also enjoy mountain biking (not too many miles in a 2 hour ride), hiking, kayaking and cross-country skiing. More significantly, I could improve my core strength and flexibility and I really need to work on balance.
What could you work on? Next week I’ll discuss how to plan your weeks.
Related Columns:
- Anti-Aging: Training in Your 50s, 60s and Beyond
- Anti-Aging: 14 Training Rules
- 8 Tips for Endurance Training This Winter
- Anti-Aging: 4 Essential Year-Round Home Resistance Exercises
- Anti-Aging: Core Strength in 1 Hour a Week
- Anti-Aging: Flexibility in 30 Minutes a Week
- Anti-Aging: Why Practicing Balance Is Important
Additional Resources:
My Cycling Past 50 four-article bundle includes:
- Healthy Cycling Past 50 reviews the physiological changes that come with increasing maturity and describes the different types of exercise to slow the aging process. It includes three sample programs depending on your goals and how much time you have.
- Performance Cycling Past 50 includes two specific performance plans: training for a fast 50-mile ride and training for a century.
- Healthy Nutrition Past 50 describes what kinds of foods you should eat for healthy nutrition and details what your daily diet should be and what you should eat on rides.
- Off-Season Conditioning Past 50 describes the benefits different activities and how to do them in the winter: cycling outdoors, cycling indoors, cross-training and resistance training. It includes two different 12-week plans and guidance on how to adapt each to your physical condition, time available and goals.
The 93-page bundle Cycling Past 50 is $15.96, $4 less than the full price of all four articles.
My Cycling Past 60 Bundle Part 1: For Health and Part 2: For Recreation describes how if you exercise correctly you can slow the effects of aging. I describe how your whole body ages. Cycling only keeps the cardiopulmonary system relatively young. If all you do is ride, you lose muscle mass, bone density, flexibility and balance, which you need for activities of daily living. I give you six different health maintenance objectives for different components of your physiology and comprehensive fitness programs that address these objectives.I include three balanced, full-body exercise programs for different cyclists of different athletic maturities. I also provide nutrition tips for healthy aging as well as advice on the importance of rest, recovery and sleep. The 47-page Cycling Past 60 Bundle Part 1: For Health and Part 2: For Recreationis only $8.98.
My Cycling Past 50, 60 and Beyond 3-article bundle includes:
- Peak Fitness 39 pages Contains four specific programs to improve your fitness in one or more of the following ways:
- Improved endurance
- More power
- Faster speed
- Higher aerobic capacity (VO2 max)
- Training with Intensity 27 pages Doing the right kind(s) of hard riding slows the aging process and delivers an array of benefits at any age:
- More efficient training.
- Stronger heart.
- Greater lung capacity
- More powerful muscles.
- Fit for Life 34pages Exercise options to strengthen your body’s functions that keep you fit for life and activities of daily living, including your aerobic, skeletal, muscular, neural, core and balance systems.
The 100-page bundle Cycling Past 50, 60 and Beyond is only $13.50.
Coach John Hughes earned coaching certifications from USA Cycling and the National Strength and Conditioning Association. John’s cycling career includes course records in the Boston-Montreal-Boston 1200-km randonnée and the Furnace Creek 508, a Race Across AMerica (RAAM) qualifier. He has ridden solo RAAM twice and is a 5-time finisher of the 1200-km Paris-Brest-Paris. He has written over 40 eBooks and eArticles on cycling training and nutrition, available in RBR’s eBookstore at Coach John Hughes. Click to read John’s full bio.
Kerry Irons says
In addition to Dunlap Condition, you left out Furniture Disease: when your chest drops down into your drawers.
On a more serious note, having good athletic maturity really makes a difference when recovering from injury. I have way too much experience with broken bones, but after the 6-8 weeks of bone healing, my athletic maturity allows me to get back to normal much more quickly.
Coach John Hughes says
Kerry,
“In addition to Dunlap Condition, you left out Furniture Disease: when your chest drops down into your drawers.”
Love it!
Barry Bogart says
That was fun. I get 17.5 (2.5 for #5). My Omron BMI meter gives me about 32 but the calc is more like 27. I now weigh 185 and am about 6′ 9″. I definitely feel overweight.
But here’s the thing. In a week, I’ll be 80. Over the last 4 years because of COVID and having moved away from my athletic friends and activities and especially not being able to X-C ski has hurt me. For 40 years I used to do social rides every weekend 50-100km, year-round and ski 2-3 times a week during Winter (in BC). I was a Randonneur from 1985 to 2016. I started kayaking 15 years ago, but have not done it at all for 4 years (and I have NO excuse for that!). I have also had 7 bike crashes (5 with cars) since 2008.
So my plans are (apart from riding every dry day at least 20k):
Go back on Keto and lose 10-20 lbs
Hike on days too wet to ride
KAYAK! I own 3 and live on a bay on Vancouver Island!
Above all, finally bikepack at least a week on this Island.
Jerry says
Strava says I am 21 but my body has gone around the sun 71 times. 500,000 feet of climbing in 2023 and I feel good. Anyway, it helps to be retired and able to enjoy pretty much every day here on Maui. Come visit and climb Haleakala with me!