Fitness age

jthomi

Got my S9PP end of 2022 and after using it in Jan/Feb my Fitness age was around 26.

Now I had to pause for various reasons, just walking the dog, but no cycling or runs. Now starting all over again, my fitness age is at 47. Slowly approaching my actual age, but sure, I hope it drops again. Since I ride a whole lot more than I run, it would be nice if rides would be used for the calculation of fitness age, too. Or is that not possible?

A Former User

@jthomi it possible to estimate that too. If you have a power meter, you can estimate VO2Max based on your power output… e.g. https://www.michael-konczer.com/en/training/calculators/calculate-vo2max

With the found VO2Max you can lookup your “fitness age” in a table like https://runninforsweets.com/vo2-max-chart/

If you don’t have a power meter on your bike, you can try to estimate your power output with http://bikecalculator.com/

It is really an estimation, but I guess this is more or less how Garmin does it. Suunto doesn’t (yet). The number you get will be even more inaccurate then for running… it is only an estimation.

Panagiotis Kritikakos

@Ketoohs This thread has some good info regarding this https://forum.suunto.com/topic/8144/9-peak-fitness-age-increasing

wakarimasen

@Panagiotis-Kritikakos said in Fitness age:

https://forum.suunto.com/topic/8144/9-peak-fitness-age-increasing

It seems that I’m 29 again

Brad_Olwin

@twekkel That was pretty cool, I used my running power to estimate VO2M and I think it gave a pretty good estimate.

trailcafe

Some news from LifeQ

https://www.benzinga.com/pressreleases/23/04/n31742809/lifeq-announces-bioage-groundbreaking-new-metric-of-physiological-state

DMytro

@trailcafe all recent Suuntos feature lifeQ sensors, right?
I wonder if it’ll make it to SA. Although, since VO2Max is taken into account, it’ll again be unusable for non-runners.

trailcafe

@DMytro I really do not know, which watches use LifeQ sensors. And honestly, I don’t look at such stats as fitness age, VO2Max or the like. There’s too much “guesswork” or “magic” behind it for me. I rather trust a few simpler formulas in WKO, as far as development/progress is concerned.

For the calculation of VO2Max there are countless formulas, which one is THE right one? Therefore, I consider e.g. Power/HF, Distance/Power or Distance/HR over longer periods, to give only a small selection. It would be nice to see those graphs in SA, or at least a Power Duration Curve. And of course separate ones for running and cycling if you use power. Maybe we can see something like that anytime as Suunto already uses some metrics of TrainingPeaks?! Would be nice…

Spree

@DMytro 7, 9 Peak, 9 Peak Pro are lifeQ to my knowledge. Not the same iteration of the sensor in all watches though.

DMytro

@Spree ok, I see. Then it would be interesting to see. I guess this metric is not provided by lifeQ for free. But in principle, this seems to be an alternative to Firstbeat’s fitness age.

A Former User

BioAge sounds like a lot of marketing BS. It is not hard to come up with a number based on HR, HRV, RHR, VO2Max and call it MyRealAge. It will be just as (in)accurate as the next one.

Something simple as a 12min Coopertest (“invented” in 1968) will give a good enough guesstimate IMHO.

thanasis

going through covid for the 3rd time (amazing how things turn sometimes ) my vo2max dropped significantly to 41.5 while my fitness age increased to 39.

i would assume that it does capture some trend and there is some sort of indication of the fitness level

Tomas5

I am very confused with this value. On my S5 i had long time no fitness age at all. After few months it showed and oscilated between 18-20 (i was 32-34 in that time). And this value was there almost for 1,5 year. Than suddanly starting few months ago. My fitness age jumped to 39 than to around 55. I didn’t changed my fitness at all, i do similar number of activities. And i feel same. But i was few time at work by walk which is one way 3km, and i had enabled WHR tracking which was very inaccurate so i was thinking my fitness age changed because of that. Today i did extensive hike 19km with 1km ascent, i had HR belt so i expected it will again jump to some lower number. But it jumped to 79 so my fitnes age is now 79. I had average HR 130 what is quite high, but it was hot weather and really seep climb so i was expecting high HR anyway. I really don’t understand what this number means but it changed from 20 to 79 in few months but my condition didn’t chage much, or at least i don’t feel real difference.

isazi

@Tomas5 how did your VO2max change in the same time? The fitness age is just the average VO2max for a certain age bracket.

MiniForklift

@Brad_Olwin said in Fitness age:

@twekkel That was pretty cool, I used my running power to estimate VO2M and I think it gave a pretty good estimate.

Interesting. According to that site that @twekkel linked to mine was only 1.5 ml/kg/min out from what my SV has currently got me at

Tomas5

@isazi today it is 28.9 and during last summer on similar hike it was 49,8. In May this year on some easier hikes, (10-12km long with less ascent) it was between 40-47.
Physically i don feel any different than few months ago or last year. So i don’t understand this rapid change in estimate VO2Max and estimated fitnes age.

isazi

@Tomas5 VO2max is for running, unfortunately it is also computed for hiking and walking activities and this messes things up. We heard Suunto is breaking away from Firstbeat, so we hope in better algorithms in the future

Tomas5

@isazi Thanks for explaining. I never did running with S5, but until few months ago it worked “fine” or at least it didn’t show i have 79 years i don’t even understand why there are this metrics, at least with S5 there are no sensors to measue it, and estimation from age, gps and heart beat is just more made up number than sientific measurement.

Edit: now i read somemore general info on VO2Max calculations. Now i am even more curiouse how this is accurate, since there is not lungh capacity or breathing rate included in calculations at all. All equations i found work just with age, hr and sex.

isazi

@Tomas5 it actually works fairly well for just running on flat ground for most people, and it uses pace and effort (HR is a proxy for effort) to estimate it.

Tomas5

@isazi thanks for explaining