Older Athletes Boast Young Fitness Age

Participants in this year’s Senior Olympics have been asked to complete an online Fitness Age Calculator to collect data about the fitness and health of older athletes.   The games, which run from July 3-16 in Minnesota, hosts 12,000 athletes over the age of 50 who compete in events including archery, cycling, swimming, track and field and tennis.

According to Dr. Pamela Peeke, a professor at the University of Maryland, super-fit seniors may demonstrate a fitness age up to 25 years younger than their chronological age due to their cardiovascular health.   The average age of athletes participating the senior games is 68, however their average fitness age was 43.

CBCNews reported that the online calculator was developed with Norwegian researcher Ulrik Wisloff and collects data including age, city, ethnicity and exercise habits and well as resting and maximum heart rates of competitors at the games.

The goal of the fitness calculator is to get people moving by using the tool as motivation to make  lifestyle changes that may slow the aging process.   Data will be collected and analyzed in the coming months and the findings are expected to be published in 2016.

For a full list of the Senior Games events and times, visit http://nsga.com/competition-schedule-849a.aspx and to take the online fitness calculator follow the link: https://www.worldfitnesslevel.org/#/ .