Performance Testing – My Experience Assessing My Own Healthspan!

One of the areas of medicine I have become increasingly passionate about involves the study of Healthspan. The concept of Healthspan is separate from lifespan. Lifespan is measured by how long you live. Healthspan, on the other hand, is not about how long you live but how well you live.

Too many of us grow up in our youthful invincible bubble where we feel bullet-proof. We take our health for granted, but often, it's not until we experience some health setback or a close friend or relative suddenly develops a significant health condition that we are jolted into taking inventory of what matters most in life.

My Testing Experience

Seeking to measure some of my own healthspan metrics, I recently underwent a series of evaluations with The Endurance Edge, which is run by several sports medicine doctors in Cary, NC. The testing was rigorous and comprehensive, providing detailed insights into my current state of fitness and areas for improvement.

For my session with Chris, I underwent a variety of testing:

1. Resting metabolic rate – this tells us how many calories are needed at a baseline to support normal daily functioning before we have added in any activity.
2. Percent body fat – there are many ways to measure this. The Endurance Edge uses calipers; a tried-and-true method when used by an experienced operator.
3. Grip strength – there is remarkable data on grip strength correlating with all-cause and disease-specific mortality, future function, bone mineral density, fractures, cognition and depression.
4. Exercise testing – this was the main event and involves either a treadmill, stationary bicycle, or even rowing.

Overall, I walked away with a much better understanding of where I stand compared to age and sex-based norms for the various metrics. It also gave me some clear goals and direction of how to improve my performance. Now I have goals related to percent body fat and VO2 max (maximal oxygen consumption – the gold standard measure of aerobic capacity and cardiovascular fitness), as well as ideas for how to train in specific heart rate zones.

This data is, of course, just one point in time, though it can help to gauge your overall fitness and also be compared on repeat testing in subsequent years.