Determining Your Body Age

Health clubs and gyms are using new tests to measure body fat, strength, cardiovascular conditioning and flexibility of clients and potential clients in order to determine their true 'body age'; test makers say that having sense of your physical age is valuable motivation to exercise; doctors say you can slow down aging process through exercise, but you cannot reverse it; drawing (M)

WHO marooned in middle age hasn't daydreamed about once again having the limberness and heart-pumping efficiency of a 30-something body? Two years ago, Whitney Connor, then 41, took matters into her own hands. How, pray tell, did she turn back the clock? First, she had her so-called ''BodyAge'' assessed at an Equinox gym in Manhattan. Her body fat, strength, cardiovascular condition and flexibility were determined according to a test created by Polar, a maker of heart rate monitors. She was told her BodyAge was also 41.

Then over four months of tackling her weaknesses, Ms. Connor whittled her BodyAge down to 33. She already had sinewy arms thanks to weight lifting. But she added two-mile runs to boost her cardiovascular shape and eliminated white bread and junk food from her diet to trim her fat.

''I became somewhat obsessed with getting that number down,'' said Ms. Connor, a gemologist, who had been disappointed to learn that her BodyAge matched her chronological one. How does she feel now that a second evaluation revealed her body is eight years younger?

''Ecstatic,'' she said with more than a dollop of pride. ''It just makes me feel healthier to know that I'm the same physical age as a 33-year-old.'' Doctors have long used an unholy cholesterol count or sky-high blood pressure to scare their patients into taking advantage of exercise's ability to delay some aspects of aging. But in an effort to boost their revenues, health clubs are now using the Polar BodyAge test to goad legions of gym-goers -- and potential members -- into finding out how old their bodies are.

As a motivational tool, having a ballpark sense of one's physical age resonates more than knowing one's vital statistics, test makers say. Dr. Michael Roizen, an anesthesiologist and an internist at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, spent decades trying to persuade his patients to stop smoking and become active. He had little success until one day when a 49-year-old patient about to undergo surgery asked about his chances for survival.

''I said, 'If you were only 49, you wouldn't have much risk, but your smoking makes you at least eight years older,' ''  Dr. Roizen recalled. '' 'If you stop smoking you can get one year younger in two months, and two years younger in five months.' He did. That taught me that if we put it in age terms, we can motivate patients.'' More than 16 million people have taken his RealAge test online since 1999. After the publication of ''The RealAge Workout,'' taking his questionnaire to more than 400 Bally gyms seemed like the next logical step.

Nearly twice as many gyms nationwide, including chains like Equinox, Gold's and Liberty Fitness, use the BodyAge system to ensnare new members during orientation. (Equinox charges $195 for the 90-minute assessment; Liberty Fitness, $125.) Roughly 168,000 assessments were taken in 2006, up from just a few thousand in 2003.

When first created in the 90's, it was known as the TriFit system. In an effort to win more customers about two years ago, it was overhauled to focus on aging. Unlike the gym-goers of the 80's, Ms. Connor doesn't toil in the name of looking good. Her modest aim is to slow her body's disintegration. And to live to brag about taking the stairs at 90.

She is not alone. ''Twenty years ago people exercised for vanity, to get the six-pack,'' said Dr. Edward L. Schneider, a professor of medicine and gerontology at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. ''Nowadays it's because the baby boomers are worried about whether Medicare will be there for them and whether they'll be healthy.'' Even some recent college graduates like Jessica Su, 24, say they exercise to ensure a healthier future. ''It's really horrible to be old and homebound and not be able to do the things you enjoy,'' said Ms. Su, an associate producer at Court TV. ''Some of my relatives have such health problems and it creates a strain on the rest of our family. I don't want to be like that when I get older.'' That concern is enough to motivate her to run and lifts weights three times a week.

Gyms are all too eager to tap into people's fear of decrepitude. Walk into a Bally in the next month and you may be asked to fill out a RealAge questionnaire about everything from activity to cholesterol count to blood pressure. Then comes the bad news: Your body is on the verge of retirement though you're actually only 45. The good news for horrified test-takers? A personal trainer would love to help chip away at that ghastly number.

In October, Bally will also run commercials featuring ''before'' and ''after'' scenes of clients who have taken the RealAge quiz and lowered their ''age'' with regular activity. How can exercise strip away the years? Take the cardiovascular system. Sedentary people lose about 5 percent of the elasticity of their heart every decade, but studies have found that exercise can diminish many of the negative effects. ''The muscle of an 80-year-old is not going to be as good and clean as that of a 20-year-old,'' Dr. Schneider said. ''But you can still have a wonderfully functioning heart.''

Yet, tests that estimate bodily age should be taken with a grain of salt, doctors say. ''You can slow down the clock, but you cannot reverse it,'' said Kerry J. Stewart, the director of clinical research and exercise physiology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore. ''There's always a decline but it's much slower in people who are athletic. A 60-year-old might be more like a 50- or 45-year-old but they are not going to be like a 20-year-old.''

Both the BodyAge and the RealAge assessments compare the test-taker with other people in their age range as determined by epidemiological data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health, among others. These tests' claim to be able to pinpoint one's physical age is suspect, said Dr. Erika Schwartz, an internist in private practice in Manhattan: ''Do I believe as a scientist that anyone can predict a number? I have my reservations about it. We are all individuals, and statistics never address individuals.'' 

And only the BodyAge test requires people to answer questions about their habits as well as have their fitness gauged on the spot. The RealAge test makes it easier for people to lie about whether they can touch their toes or complete a dozen situps. Still, for some people, being told a body age, even if there is no particular validity to the number, can spur them to get serious about their health. During a 2000 physical with Dr. Roizen, Bruce Jackson, an executive in the automotive industry, took a RealAge test, which set his age in the mid-50's. He was 44 at the time. ''I thought I was in great shape, but when someone says mid-50's, it sounds old,'' he said. ''You think, 'Am I going to die?' ''

He started walking a half hour a day and lifting weights. Today Mr. Jackson, a 51-year-old who exercises for 90 minutes five mornings a week, is 38, according to RealAge. ''Everybody who sees me says I look nowhere close to 51,'' he said gleefully. Beth Furman, a magazine publisher in Wellesley, Mass., plans to take periodic BodyAge tests. ''I don't weigh myself, but  it's just like women who get on the scale,'' said Ms. Furman, 51. ''This test is like that for me. I use it to see how I'm doing, if I need to change my workout or not.'' Her first test said her body was 46 and that her chief problem was a lack of strength.

She has since been using the hydraulic machines and free weights, and doing Pilates. ''I'm going to shoot for under 40,''  Ms. Furman said.