I’ve seen a bunch of Internet content about fitness benchmarks along the lines of, “You should be able to do this, this, and this to be super fit/to rank in the “top 10 percent”/to achieve longevity, or whatever. Anything related to fitness benchmarks is interesting to consider, but most of this stuff is also kind of lame, with no reference to longevity science or practical analysis of peak performers. I suppose you could call these proclamations the Internet at its worst—a booming narrator spewing content at you in an attempt to convince you that it’s true, to elicit FOMO, or to spark controversy.
My biggest objection with much of this stuff is that nothing is age-graded and also seems directed at males only. Come on! Fitness benchmarks for athletic college-aged males have minimal relevance to someone who is fighting the battle at 50, 60, or 80, you know? “Deadlift twice your bodyweight! Run a seven-minute mile!” We need more context and more scientific support for this stuff, and also a carefully curated aging scale. I appreciate how Masters Track & Field experts observe a pretty consistent 6% decline per decade in peak performance. This insight is calculated from the world records in the five-year age divisions from age 30-34 up to 100+. For example, running 400 meters in 60 seconds at age 50 compares to running a 63.6 at age 60, and so forth. The age-gradation is calculated across every event such that a real superstar like my former podcast guest Sue McDonald will get a 99% score next to her world record 400-meter time of 61 seconds at age 61, while the world’s 25th ranked performer will see an age-graded score of 83% next to her time.
I remember my dad gracefully sailing through his 80s and 90s where he could walk 18-holes (around five miles) in his early 80s, then a few years later would walk 9 holes, then mainly use a golf cart while still shooting excellent scores into his early 90s. In the final stages of his 97 years before passing in 2019, he’d walk a half-mile loop at the park every day, then it turned into walking half of that loop. Eventually, his walks were in the backyard, and finally walking from the bedroom to the kitchen for meals. We are all guaranteed to slow down over time, so we might as well set some standards to strive for and repeat these challenges as we age to keep score and keep us focused.
Seeing the goofy and random internet challenges gets me inspired to put some thought into establishing some important benchmarks that represent full body functional fitness for longevity. Do you want to know what the absolute best longevity benchmark performance is, by far? Something you personally enjoy doing and want to do for the rest of your life. Walk the golf course? My brother Wally, age 73, plays three rounds every week on foot, even in 100F plus summer heat, and carrying a heavy bag. He’s shot under his age twice in recent years! Can he “back squat 1.5 times bodyweight, or deadlift twice bodyweight?” No, but he can beat all those bros in golf for sure!
I did some posting about my wonderful experience completing the Cactus-to-Clouds trail in Palm Springs, CA—rated as the number-one most difficult hiking trail in the USA, maybe the world, as measured by sustained vertical gain. The trail starts on the desert floor in downtown Palm Springs and climbs 8,400’ in the first 9.3 miles. It’s literally the same gradient as climbing stairs without a break for nine miles. (Note: I hate how the word “literally” is overused all day long, but I do mean literally here.) The entire route is 22-miles, and I’m making it a bucket list item to repeat annually in the years ahead.
For scientifically valid longevity benchmarks, we need things that integrate functional muscle strength, cardiovascular endurance, and mobility/flexibility. Remember, the #1 cause of demise and death in Americans over age 65 is falling and related adverse consequences. For example, become bedridden with a broken hip, lose what little conditioning you had, catch pneumonia and die. We talk about balance drills often to prevent falling, but we also have to preserve explosive muscle power with anaerobic training. Realize that catching yourself from falling is essentially performing a sudden, single rep max effort with extremely off balance bodyweight. An elite athlete on the basketball court can trip on a foot, pitch forward and right oneself after a few staggered strides. An elderly person missing a step might go down hard and start a long path to demise.
It’s important to realize that anaerobic muscle fibers decline much more rapidly with age than aerobic endurance. Many seniors are doing great compiling a good daily step count. A prominent UCLA study revealed a stunning difference between seniors with insufficient daily steps (under 4,000), versus an active population of seniors (well over 4,000). The active folks had larger hippocampi, better short term processing, better long term recall, and better health outcomes. Walking and moving throughout life is huge, but it’s not enough. Sarcopenia and dynapenia—the age related loss of muscle mass and muscle power—are the biggest drivers of accelerated aging. Walking and gentle cardio make a very minimal contribution here. You have to load the skeleton with resistance on a regular basis (strength training), and you have to conduct occasional brief, explosive, all-out sprints.
Health leaders are emphasizing this now, but the concept that staying strong and fit promotes longevity has been disrespected for decades. Why? Because it’s come to be seen as normal to go into chicken leg mode as you age. As we look in every direction and see frail seniors (or obese, but lacking muscle mass and fitness in any case), we fail to appreciate how our rates of aging can be substantially delayed simply by keeping in shape. Former podcast guest Lion Martinez of Sweden set the world record in the mens’ age 45+ 100 meters with a time of 10.79—good enough to compete with the fastest sprinters in his country! Former podcast guest Sue McDonald has set 15 world records in Masters track & field in recent years, and competes in college track & field meets alongside the youngsters!
Speaking of the 400 meters, my next article will talk about why running one lap around a neighborhood track near you is a fantastic fitness benchmark to test, retest and strive for improvement, and I’ll mention a handful of other great ones as well.
