A Poor Machine Reading

Carrera said:

:eek: Anyone ever seen those fitness-testing machines located in shopping-centres? You insert a coin, place the finger on a sensor and get a pulse rate assessment.
Here is the surprise:
The top mark was "athlete", the second mark was "good condition" and the third was "average".
So, guess what I scored?
Well, to my surprise I only scored average, which is kind of weird as I was expecting "good condition."
For a start, I was active in weight-training for many years before I cycled and even though weights doesn't do wonders for fitness, the high-rep squatting with 20 rep sets certainly pushes the lungs to capacity.
Added to that, I cycle several days a week and push my cardio quite a lot with the climbing. But according to the fitness monitor I'm as fit cardio-wise as the average guy who simply drives to work by car, goes for the odd walk or plays football once a week.
Seems kind of odd. I'm wondering whether the fact I have a sedate job has anything to do with it all and the fact I don't have time to do long cycle rides, only short uphill rides with increased heart-rate over, say, 1 hour, thirty minutes. Or could it be my partiality to the odd drop of alcohol (downed a pint of guiness last night)?
All in all, maybe I ain't as fit as I figured as I was. Any thoughts?

Well, the answer is obvious. Youre terribly unfit! :eek:

Forget about what some penny arcade tells you. Here's Dr. Morbius' list for true health and wellness. There are a couple of other tests you could have your "real" Dr. do such as an EKG to check for any arrhythmias and such, but if you go by this list and get all these numbers at an optimum level you will be a healthy individual.

• Blood pressure
  
• Cholesterol
  
• Triglicerides
  
• Blood sugar
  
• Resting heart rate
  
• Percentage of bodyfat
  

A health machine in a shopping center. Really Carrera, you could have just used one of those magic 8 balls we had as kids! 😉 Or perhaps a Ouija board.

I think the machine goes on your resting pulse and, apparently, I'm far from having the resting pulse of an athlete.
I'm no expert on the cardio side of things but I'm wondering how I can increase this facet of fitness when on a tight work schedule. I'm off for a bike ride now before work and this will involve me grimacing, being a bit red in the face and puffing my way up a very long climb plenis velis (full speed ahead).
As I've been keeping up my fitness training religiously over Winter, yes, I'm disappointed the shopping-centre-machine rates me as a Mr Average.
It's kind of like a bodybuilder losing to an arcade arm-wrestling machine. I'll be sulking all week long.
🙁

Doctor Morbius said:

Well, the answer is obvious. Youre terribly unfit! :eek:

Forget about what some penny arcade tells you. Here's Dr. Morbius' list for true health and wellness. There are a couple of other tests you could have your "real" Dr. do such as an EKG to check for any arrhythmias and such, but if you go by this list and get all these numbers at an optimum level you will be a healthy individual.

• Blood pressure
  
• Cholesterol
  
• Triglicerides
  
• Blood sugar
  
• Resting heart rate
  
• Percentage of bodyfat
  

A health machine in a shopping center. Really Carrera, you could have just used one of those magic 8 balls we had as kids! 😉 Or perhaps a Ouija board.

Carrera said:

I think the machine goes on your resting pulse and, apparently, I'm far from having the resting pulse of an athlete.
I'm no expert on the cardio side of things but I'm wondering how I can increase this facet of fitness when on a tight work schedule. I'm off for a bike ride now before work and this will involve me grimacing, being a bit red in the face and puffing my way up a very long climb plenis velis (full speed ahead).
As I've been keeping up my fitness training religiously over Winter, yes, I'm disappointed the shopping-centre-machine rates me as a Mr Average.
It's kind of like a bodybuilder losing to an arcade arm-wrestling machine. I'll be sulking all week long.
🙁

You're going to need to get an HRM and take several readings over the course of a week or two. Chances are you're in better condition that you think. When you took that reading on the alleged fitness machine you were probably up walking around. Big diff from lying in your bed just before you fall asleep or just after you wake up.