New Test For Middle-Age Fitness

Traditional fitness tests become invalid when used on middle-age people.

Dr. Albert A. DeVries and Kenneth Lersten of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, said that the traditional tests rely on strength, speed, agility, power, balance, and coordination. Often those tests are hazardous for older people and produce invalid conclusions.

To get around that problem, investigators selected other standards to measure fitness. Those include blood pressure, maximal oxygen consumption, blood composition, nervous tension and muscle tone.

Jogging is heartening. Within three months after leaving the hospital, probably one-third of all heart patients can start jogging, says an Oregon cardiologist.

Dr. Waldo E. Harris recommends an exercise program which he developed over a four-year period on a group of 32 men. They were tested and evaluated from the time they were permitted to sit on a chair just days after the attack. All of them have since returned to their jobs and many jog over two miles, 3 or 4 times a week.

The Best of Three. What produces the greatest gain in physical fitness--running, exercise on the treadmill, or exercise on a stationary bicycle?

That was the question answered by researchers at Harding College at Arkansas, U.S.A. After extensive studies of the three activities, a trial group was given tests in maximal breathing capacity, vital capacity, working systolic blood pressure, resting diastolic blood pressure, and lean body mass.

Although the study showed that all groups had significant gains on most of the tests for fitness improvement, the running group showed the greatest improvement. Bicycling was second and treadmill work third.

All improved more than a control group which did no exercise.

Running means more blood. Fitness for Living Magazine reveals that total blood volume (TBV) in 14 previously sedentary males (ages 26 to 64) increased by about 6 percent after running 47 times during a 16-week period.

In a control group the TBV did not change significantly.

There's a surprising link between long hours of sleep and a rise in heart disease fatalities, according to Fitness for Living Magazine.

The American Cancer Society, in the same report, revealed that350,000 men and 450,000 women who slept 9 or more hours nightly had higher death rates from heart disease than those who slept only 7 or less hours.

The article suggests that a longer, more active day restricts heart disease.

TIDBITS. Fat people don't necessarily eat more: They exercise less.