Can somebody open this damn pickle jar while I run to the store?

The health assessment did happen a couple weeks ago, I just haven't got around to blogging about it yet. Without giving you many specific numbers (hows about a little privacy, eh? Sheesh.), here are my results.

Cardiac health: frickin awesome! My resting heart rate was measured at 56 bpm, and that was after being up and moving around for about an hour and a half that morning. Doing five minutes of cardio took my pulse up to 116 and two minutes of recovery saw the rate return to 66, which apparently is excellent. My blood pressure is just fine, too.

Strength: not so much. I'm a runner*. I run. I do very little else, so the strength test she gave me returned a "fair" result. I also bombed out on push ups and curl ups - she was almost laughing at me! I know, I could throw in 20 or 30 of each every day or even after every run, which would be easy enough to do and probably make a big difference pretty quickly. Anyway, the point is that I don't do that yet and I'm a weakling because of neglecting strength training.

Flexibility: excellent, she says. Well, take enough yoga and you learn how to release your lower back to stretch at the waist. Since this is the only flexibility test she gave me, the assessment didn't record my lack of flexibility in my neck or upper back.

Measurements: Apparently I should try to build an inch or more on my upper arms to better balance out my top and bottom halves. I have what they call "healthy leg syndrome" that disables me from buying trendy boots. Let me just say that I am not concerned. See the * above.

Body composition: right around what I was guessing it would be. They use the most inaccurate measurement for body comp, a scale-like machine that measures conductance and probably density then calculates those things against weight, age, and activity level. One thing I learned is that our home scale is pretty accurate, or at least is in line with the gym scale. The machine also measures "total body water" and the trainer expressed some concern that my level (~50%) should be higher (~60-70%). Seriously? I drink like 2 or 3L of water every day, often more, and my sodium and nutrient levels are fine so there really is no reason that my TBW should be low. She asked "are you a sweater?" Well, yes. I am a fervent sweater. So, on hot days or long run days she advises drinking something like Gatorade to keep everything in balance. Blah. I hate those drinks. I sometimes make my own after a run with water, lemon juice and salt, so maybe I'll drink that after every run now instead of just the long runs. I actually think there is no way I could be drinking more water in a day.

On the whole, I'm glad I signed up for this. It was a pain in the tuckus to actually arrange, but it's nice to have some numbers and some external validation that I'm doing ok on the active health front. I'm still very interested in doing the more accurate tests at the Buchannan lab that Katie mentioned in the comments section. One of these days I'll go sign up there for a hydrostatic body composition analysis and the VO2max tests done on the treadmill with electrodes and all. I'm not aiming to be any kind of super athlete - I hear they don't allow lazy people who like large portions of food and drink to sign up for that career - but it's cool to learn about my body and my abilities.

Alrighty, I'm off to school for a meeting even though there's another "unspecified threat" today and Bio Science is again in lock down. I'll avoid the main part of campus but the police and school authorities seem to be taking the threat pretty casually this time. Anyway, my test results show that I can out run any threat, just don't ask me to open the pickle jar!