What is your fitness age?
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What is your fitness age?
So Garmin has this measurement called "fitness age", based on your VO2 max.
I don't know how they calculate fitness age, but this sexagenarian will take the compliment.
But a fitness age of 20??? Come on, at least make the lie believable!

Also VO2max of 47 superior? Seems pretty middle of the pack.
I don't know how they calculate fitness age, but this sexagenarian will take the compliment.
But a fitness age of 20??? Come on, at least make the lie believable!

Also VO2max of 47 superior? Seems pretty middle of the pack.
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Last edited by terrymorse; 07-03-22 at 01:02 PM.
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First, you need a power meter and heart monitor. Garmin has an algorithm that looks at your performance and estimates your VO2max from your ride data.
From the Garmin website:
From the Garmin website:
Assessing your VO2 max reliably from real-world activity data requires smart analytics capable of automatically recognizing the portions of your activity that truly reflect your abilities. This means, among other things, identifying and eliminating segments where your aerobic energy pathways are still warming up to increases in energy demand and those times when fatigue and cardiac drift are influencing your results.
The Garmin algorithm is based on one developed by Firstbeat, which report this about their method:The method has been validated also with freely performed cycling by 29 cyclists whose pedaling power and heart rate were collected. The accuracy of the method when applied for cycling was 92% (MAPE [Mean Absolute Percentage Error] ~5%).
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Last edited by terrymorse; 07-03-22 at 06:11 PM. Reason: fixed brackets
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I just do what I do. It doesn't really matter to me if someone or some app tells me I'm older or younger than my biological age. It really doesn't mean anything to me.
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My fitness age is 20 too. I sure don't feel like 20. So yeah, they need to do some work on that and come up with something that gives a better idea of how to relate what they are trying to tell us.
I wonder what I would have been when I was 20 some years old and my lungs, muscles and stamina in much better shape.
I wonder what I would have been when I was 20 some years old and my lungs, muscles and stamina in much better shape.
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I will play. I have a Garmin 830. Age 73 VO2 45, Terry, you are still on top of the leader board.


Last edited by Hermes; 07-04-22 at 09:08 AM.
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My maturity age is somewhere in the ballpark of 20. Saw that flash on my Garmin 520 Plus once.
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#9
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You can't use VO2max to measure fitness because fitness is a lot more than just having a good VO2max.
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I'm the age of denial, and there I will remain.
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https://jameshewitt.net/2014/10/30/h...eir-advantage/
Age 66, estimated VO2max: 47-49 this season. Weak and slow.
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Sexagenerain here. (A rather misleading term if you have been married long enough
. No power meter, just a HRM so I must be a zero. Did hit 190 BPM on a 17% climb the other day and didn’t infarct, so maybe zero plus one.

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Come to think of it, maybe my fitness age is much less than 20:
- I badly need an afternoon nap
- I need to be in bed before 10
- I wake up multiple times during the night
- I have to tinkle often
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Garmin is massaging our old egos; my fitness age is 25 years less than my age, but I dont believe it for a minute. I sure dont feel like forty! Then again, if you average in all the sedentary, overstressed folks, maybe somewhat realistic. They may be grading on a curve with very low expectations. We Americans are not exactly shining examples of health, generally speaking.
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Garmin is massaging our old egos; my fitness age is 25 years less than my age, but I dont believe it for a minute. I sure dont feel like forty! Then again, if you average in all the sedentary, overstressed folks, maybe somewhat realistic. They may be grading on a curve with very low expectations. We Americans are not exactly shining examples of health, generally speaking.
Incidentally, I don't have a Garmin computer and don't know my "fitness age", but the VO2max estimates from HRV4Training and intervals.icu agree in my case.
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I'm trying to keep my VO2max higher than my age. (I just turned 55, so I'm on track.)
Re fitness age: Have you *seen* the average American 20 year old? It's nothing to brag about.
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For complex reasons, I had to have a physical at an armed forces recruitment center back in the late 80s and sat for a while, stripped to my skivvies, in a long line-up of young guys until I got yanked out as a VIP. You're so right.
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Garmin says my fitness age Is 3.
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I am all in on this VO2 greater than age thing you have going. I have a lot of work to do,
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Well, my lungs (all five lobes) at age 82, are filled with bone. This is caused by dendritic pulmonary ossification, extremely rare orphan disease generally diagnosed in autopsies. I have no clue what my VO2 max is but I feel very lucky that I can swim 45 minutes, bicycle a couple of hours, the resistance exercises, stretch and walk all in one day. There is no cure, but on the other hand it's not terribly progressive. So I don't worry about my VO2 max, I just hope to get out of bed everyday.<br />
Last edited by gobicycling; 07-05-22 at 10:04 PM.
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