One way to start off the New Year is to assess your true fitness age. Fitness age is a well-studied scientific concept that uses simple health measures to estimate your body’s biological age compared to your chronological age.

According to The Washington Post, you may be 50 based on your calendar years, but you could have a fitness age anywhere from 25 to 75, depending on what shape you are in ,according to studies. By using a simple online tool, you can determine your fitness age and devise a plan that best suits your fitness goals.

Special: Alleviate Your Joint Pain in as Little as 5 Days
 

Experts say that the fitter you are, especially aerobically, the more likely you are to live a long, healthy life. To determine your fitness age, you’ll need to know your height in centimeters, weight in kilograms and resting heart rate, which you can determine by using a stopwatch or timer. You’ll also need an honest appraisal of how hard and how often you exercise.

Researchers in Norway developed this handy online tool after studying the effects of aerobic, or more technically VO2 max, fitness as a marker of general health, along with other markers, such as body composition, blood pressure, heart rate and exercise habits. They created an algorithm that could cross-check VO2 max and longevity and developed the fitness age calculator.

Since 2019, studies using the calculator found that a relatively low fitness age is linked to less long-term risk of heart attack, depression, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, brain shrinkage and dementia in middle-aged and older men and women. In addition, if you do develop a chronic disease, your symptoms may develop more slowly if your fitness age is low, says the Post.

The current fitness age calculator is free and maintained by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. It’s been updated since its original posting in 2013 and is currently being used by 80 million people around the globe, said Ulrik Wisloff, head of the Cardiac Exercise Research Group at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway, and one of the original researchers.

You can click here to use the calculator and find your fitness age. If you’d like to improve your fitness age, Wisloff recommends moving more often and vigorously.

• If you like to walk, look for a hill and stride to the top as quickly as you can. Repeat twice.

• If you have access to a treadmill or bike, ride or run at a taxing pace for four minutes, and then rest by walking or pedaling for three minutes. Repeat that sequence four times.

• Jump, lunge, do squats or burpees for five minutes and then walk for three minutes in between three sets. This efficient workout requires no equipment and less time than a coffee break.

Exerting yourself vigorously for even a few minutes several times a week should soon improve your fitness age, said Wisloff.