Glancing through my apps while waiting out a loadshed-interrupted Dodgeball World Cup training session, I found my “Garmin Fitness Age” on my Garmin app. Well, where else would it be?
And what does it mean?
Google is your friend here:
What Does Fitness Age Mean in Garmin Connect?
Available on select Garmin watches, Fitness Age is an estimate of how fit you are compared to your actual age. Compatible Garmin watches will calculate your Fitness Age using your VO2 max estimate.
While your VO2 max estimate describes your current fitness level, it is not always easy to know what it means. Fitness Age reinterprets your VO2 max score in terms of age to make it more relatable.
Regularly engaging in the right types of physical activity will help you boost your VO2 max estimate score and will reduce your Fitness Age.
OK. So run a bit and you’ll get fitter. Wow. Whatever next? Steps?
Anyway:
If your Fitness Age is lower than your actual age, then you are on the right track. If it is higher, there may be some areas you can work on to improve it.
Right. Well, I’m on the right track. In fact, according to my Fitness Age, I’m the same age as I was when I moved to South Africa a whole 18 years ago. Ha!
I must say that I have been working really hard to regain some fitness since you-know-what, and I’m glad that it appears to be paying off, but I certainly don’t feel 18 years younger than I am right now. I might be able to run like that occasionally, but people 18 years younger than me don’t wake up each morning wondering if their knees are going to work that day.
At least, I didn’t when I was that age.
Anyway, now I know what’s going on with my Garmin Fitness Age, I fully plan to drag it all the way back to my late teens, when I was pretty-much unbroken (L5/S1disc excepted). So, look out for me on the road: I’ll be the blur of velocity racing past you (and everyone else), pretending that I’m still 18 years younger than I actually am.