Lots of authors are emphasizing most cardio oxygen consumption (VO2max) as being essential for wholesome growing old, so I believed I’d look into testing it. It’s costly to have carried out professionally, however there are a number of self-tests out there. I wished a biking one, and remembered there was one within the guide Aerobics Program For Complete Nicely-Being written by Dr. Kenneth Cooper (typically referred to as the “father of aerobics”) again in 1982, nonetheless out there. Dr. Cooper turned 93 this 12 months and is himself an excellent commercial for wholesome growing old. He developed a 12 minute aerobics take a look at for operating initially, however on this guide additionally gave tables for swimming and biking.
Dr Cooper used information from numerous topics of varied ages to correlate the outcomes of those exams to V02max. It’s also possible to simply examine your outcomes on the exams 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 attain a distance of higher than 3.5 miles in 12 minutes (equal to common velocity of over 17.5 mph). For people who don’t have the guide, the biking outcomes are additionally right here and in addition proven beneath.
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 experience yesterday morning, and lined the three.89 mile loop in 13:14, for a mean velocity of 17.63 mph, which is equal to protecting 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 guide, however aerobars weren’t extensively out there within the early 80s, so I figured my higher-speed arrange on my recumbent, with a extremely reclined seat (not less than as aero as an upright time trial bike with aerobars), is perhaps dishonest a bit in comparison with the info within the exams. 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 to enhance for some time, and not less than maintain my outcomes from degrading too shortly over time.
Listed here are the tables for the Cooper bike take a look at:
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