Lots of authors are emphasizing most cardio oxygen consumption (VO2max) as being essential for wholesome ageing, so I believed I’d look into testing it. It’s costly to have completed professionally, however there are a number of self-tests accessible. I needed a biking one, and remembered there was one within the e-book Aerobics Program For Whole Properly-Being written by Dr. Kenneth Cooper (typically referred to as the “father of aerobics”) again in 1982, nonetheless accessible. Dr. Cooper turned 93 this 12 months and is himself a very good commercial for wholesome ageing. He developed a 12 minute aerobics take a look at for operating initially, however on this e-book additionally gave tables for swimming and biking.
Dr Cooper used information from numerous topics of assorted ages to correlate the outcomes of those checks to V02max. You may also simply evaluate your outcomes on the checks to his tables, which have classes “very poor” via “wonderful”. Sadly, the info stops on the “60+” class, however by plotting the outcomes and extrapolating, I estimated that to be within the wonderful class for biking at 70+, males have to realize a distance of higher than 3.5 miles in 12 minutes (equal to common pace of over 17.5 mph). For people who don’t have the e-book, the biking outcomes are additionally right here and in addition proven under.
So I created a close-by flat loop, which is now on Strava as “Cooper TT North” (it’s a bit north of Morgan Hill, between Hale and Dougherty avenues), proven right here. I did this as a part of my trip yesterday morning, and coated the three.89 mile loop in 13:14, for a mean pace of 17.63 mph, which is equal to masking 3.5 miles in 11.9 minutes). So primarily based on my estimate, I’m within the wonderful class for age 70+ (and in the midst of the “good” class for 60+). That feels fairly good!
Dr, Cooper didn’t specify bike place in his e-book, however aerobars weren’t broadly accessible within the early 80s, so I figured my higher-speed arrange on my recumbent, with a extremely reclined seat (at the least as aero as an upright time trial bike with aerobars), may be dishonest a bit in comparison with the info within the checks. So I used low rolling resistance tires however the extra upright “touring” seating place of my bike. I’ll repeat this take a look at about as soon as a month and hopefully be capable of enhance for some time, and at the least preserve my outcomes from degrading too shortly over time.
Listed below are the tables for the Cooper bike take a look at:
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