If you didn’t already know I recently went in to have my body fat and VO2Max measured. I was interested in my level of fitness now almost two years after I started working on not being a big fatty. I also did it as a baseline against which I can measure my progress this year. I am pretty serious about my fitness now and wish I would have done these tests back when I could give a crap.

Overall I would recommend getting this done. It costs $160 here in Houston at the Memorial Herman Sports Medicine Institute.  They dunk you in a tank and weigh you under water, then you run on a treadmill while wearing a mask.

If you are considering starting a fitness regime I recommend this in addition to taping yourself, weighing yourself and taking before pictures. All of these things are important tools to help you measure your progress, but I especially appreciated seeing my lactate threshold, and VO2Max. These measures are more than how much fat you have, they show me how fit I am. I will be keeping track of these new measurements as well.

My Results

So the results were a bit surprising. I thought I was a bit fatter (assumed I was closer to 27%), but I wouldn’t have guessed that put me in the 20^th percentile.  I thought I was pretty fit in that area, but I guess 8 out of 10 of you aren’t carrying as much body fat. 

My VO2Max was a huge surprise. I didn’t expect it to be that high, and did not expect the 80^th percentile.  This is especially high when you consider the fact that VO2Max is based on your weight. In fact a reduction in my weight will result in a big jump because the measure is of the volume of air divided by the time it took to consume it divided by your weight. If my math is good that means if I lose 13 lbs, I will have a VO2Max over 50.

The Lactate Threshold seems pretty good to me and I didn’t know what to expect. The doctor was impressed with this number and he told his assistant that this is because I do CrossFit.  The doctor seems to think it was even more impressive because I did a workout that morning so I was releasing more CO2 than normal.  He asked how intense it was and I didn’t know. When I told them that I did they laughed, and said it wasn’t normal. (See link http://bit.ly/i9Ga7B for workout.) He said this would lower my lactate threshold but possibly would not affect my VO2Max. He said the hot wings from Hooters 30 minutes prior were a bad idea and probably made the test suck really bad, but wouldn’t affect the test results either.  Lesson learned, next test I won’t be doing that.

The Flexibility Test was thrown in for free, so I knew ahead of time I was going to suck at this one. You bend to touch your toes and she is like whenever you are ready stretch. I said, "I am stretching". Well she said she would give me a ten but that I should probably work on it.

I think the answers are pretty clear about which direction I go from here. My level of fitness is good and the amount I am working out isn’t bad either. I could stand to do more and I will do more, but I am not slacking too much. My big issue is my diet. I eat too much, too often and I drink a lot of beer.  I knew this was an issue, and so I have already started eating better.  I will be doing this test again, and I will let you know how it goes.

I tried a new gym on Saturday and man am I sore today. I am walking around like I sat on the business end of a broomstick. Needless to say it didn't take too much creativity to poke(ha ha) some fun at Nathan. It is all for a good cause, a healthier me. The last time I was this sore, it was largely in part due to an English-accented weight room devil named Paul Disbury. Paul has a magical power to convince you to do things you know you shouldn't do. He would somehow convince you to do 10 more lbs, 10 more times for 10 minutes than you had planned on doing. Then he would torture you while you did it with comments like,  "Let's do negatives!" or "Hold the last one" or "That isn't your sex face is it?". It was all in good fun, and I think part of the pleasure for Paul is at the pub later when we cursed him with every step.

Well this new gym would do Paul proud. I have been looking into it for a while and waited until after the new year because it is not the cheapest. I went for my introduction class and was not disappointed. To give you an idea of the caliber of the class, one of the female instructors was demonstrating pull-ups for us when her shirt came up a bit and showed a bit of a spare tire. The other instructor leaned over and told us that she was about 3 months pregnant. Great. I can't do one pull-up and she is lifting two people. I imagine these would be the same workouts Paul would come up with if you gave him a few rudimentary tools and asked him to create a torture, I mean exercise program.

I will certainly be heading back, as soon as I can walk. You can read about the theory of the gym at Crossfit, or you can read about my gym at www.atomiccrossfit.com.

I give you the Crossfit mascot, Pukie the Clown.

Updated: They posted several pics of me!