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The joys of getting a free health checkup because I’m 40

Edmond Chan · Dec 24, 2020 · Leave a Comment

The NHS kindly offers anyone over 40 a free health MOT. (TBH I haven’t actually checked whether you get these under 40, so please check!)

In Covid times, you get a phone call appointment from your GP and they arrange a blood test for you. I asked if I could get every available blood test including testosterone levels, and they said yes.

Some weeks later, you get a phone call from your doctor to discuss your results.

And mine were all good! There’s something reassuring about having a doctor say that all is fine, and all fine at a granular level.

My sugars were all fine, so not diabetic. Calcium all good. Even my cholesterol was all good, which Angelique was both surprised with and delighted about. I’m sure she’s been a positive influence on my cholesterol, as I do love my junk food and beers. She hates it when I buy McDonalds for breakfast!

My testosterone levels were well above average which I was chuffed about. My doctor wondered why it mattered so much to me and for me, it’s just that I know that as men get older, their testosterone levels go down. Along with their pep and vigour! The doctor didn’t disagree, so I take that as an endorsement!

As an aside, here’s some of the benefits of decent testosterone levels from a Harvard Health Publishing article:

Muscle size and strength
Bone growth and strength
Sex drive (libido)
Sperm production
Testosterone — What It Does And Doesn’t Do:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/drugs-and-medications/testosterone–what-it-does-and-doesnt-do

The only point of concern that the doctor raised was something about ‘big’ red blood cells and she asked me if I drank a lot. I reckon I drink about 30 units a week, and she said that was probably too much. You can’t change everything though, can you?!

Anyway, I recommend getting one of these MOT health checks done if you can. It’s a real weight off your mind and gives you a lot of confidence about your lifestyle (if it’s good of course). And things to focus on if it’s not so good. Health compounds, so if you’re able to get one of these, do so!

How fit can I get in a month? (part 3)

Edmond Chan · Nov 11, 2020 · Leave a Comment

*Er not my gym! (This is a photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash)*

Since benchmarking my fitness against the tests in the previous post, I’ve focused on:

Improving my best-effort one and half mile.
Press-ups according to the technique in the previous post
Sit-ups according to the technique in the previous post.
Pull-ups
Plank
500 metre row

How am I tracking progress?

I’m using a simple Google sheet to manually plug in my numbers each time I do exercise. Here’s what it looked like for Week 1:

Improving my best-effort one and half mile

I’m pretty excited about doing this one. I’ve run a lot of miles since May this year but I haven’t really been seeing any improvements in pace. I’m always hovering around the 9min 30sec/mile pace for 3.5 miles. I’m hoping that by using the treadmill to get faster over shorter dosctances such as 1.5 miles, I’ll get baseline quicker.

I bust a gut to hit that 13min mark for the 1.5miles in the benchmark exercise and I’m really hoping to break 12mins in this event before the end of the month. I did that on Week 4 with an 11:50min. That’s a hard run! I want to break 11mins now. And then 10:30mins because 10mins is considered ‘Excellent’ by Men’s Health (see the previous post for the link). I think it’s doable in a month or two!

(A note post-new-lockdown: my gym is now closed in line with the national lockdown. So that puts treadmills out. I ran outside for the first time since starting this experiment, and my pace was significantly faster. Beforehand, I would be doing around 9min 30 secs per mile, and now I’m doing around 8min 30 secs per mile pace. Speedwork on the treadmill really does have an effect. To do this, I recommend cranking the pace up on the treadmill to almost as fast as you can go and try to hold that pace for as long as possible. Try for a minute, then two minutes, then 3 minutes. Try to make your sprint finishes longer and longer. Try to beat your times every session on the treadmill.)

Press-ups

These Royal Marine-style press-ups are hard! Try it, especially if you’ve been doing them with a wide grip all your life like I have. At shoulder-width apart, these feel like my hands are almost touching each other.

In 6 weeks, I’ve gone from 20 to a best-effort maximum of 40 press-ups. The final 10 press-ups of that set were pretty slow going but 40 is 40!

According to the Coach Mag article from the previous post, 50 and above is considered Excellent. My target is to do 60 is one smooth go, and with strict form. I think that’s fully doable in a month or two!

Sit-ups

My first benchmarking effort on this was 27 sit-ups in 1 min 10 secs. By the end of Week 6, I got to a best-effort maximum of 45. The execution of these 45 was very similar to the press-ups execution above, with some pretty slow and strained situps towards the end!

From the Mayo Clinic article in the previous two posts, I should score around 37 situps in a minute for my age. My target is now 85 as I’ve seen that’s a benchmark for the Royal Marines, and also because I’ve exceeded the Mayo Clinic’s benchmark. I think 85 should be doable in a couple of months!

Pullups

This didn’t see as much of an improvement as the other metrics. My initial benchmark in Week 1 was 3 pull-ups and I never got above 4 pull-ups for a maximum effort.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been on the pull-down machine instead, doing 3 x sets of 75kg. My bodyweight is 80kg, so I need to be able to pull down 80kgs to be able to pull myself up better. Or I need to shed a few kgs! Probably a combination of both.

My target is 12 proper pull-ups. I think that should be doable in about 3 months, once lockdown ends and I can get back into the gym.

Plank

I started with a 1:01min best effort plank in my initial benchmark and I got to 1:30min pretty quickly by the end of Week 1. More than 2 mins is Excellent according to Coach Mag so I stopped there and focused on the other metrics above.

500m Row

This was hard. My initial benchmark was 02:08mins. (I don’t seem to have updated my tracking spreadsheet beyond Week 1 – oops. But by the end of Week 1, I got to 01:57mins, which is just squeezing into the Average bucket according to Coach Mag. (I will get back on this once gyms open up again)

Next steps

I’ll report back with an update in a few weeks.

How fit can I get in a month? (part 2 – a humbling experience!)

Edmond Chan · Oct 11, 2020 · Leave a Comment

Benchmarking against the tests and metrics I chose in the previous post was quite a humbling experience!

Here are the tests/metrics and my initial test scores:

Resting heart rate.

Angelique measured my pulse on my wrist. The Mayo Clinic article suggests counting the beats in 15 secs and converting this to the beats per minute. Mine is 16 beats in 15 secs, so 64 in a minute.

Fastest time to run 1.5 miles (2.4km)

This is a key test I think as it measures aerobic fitness. Here’s a screenshot from the Mayo Clinic article that shows what different times mean:

And from the Men’s Health article on the same test:

The Scorecard:
12 minutes or more: Slow
Between 10 and 12 minutes: Ordinary
10 minutes or less: Endurance excellence
https://www.menshealth.com/fitness/a19534622/fitness-level-tests/

I did my initial measurement on the treadmill and I scored 13:00 mins flat. Which is slow!

Number of press-ups to fatigue

From the Coach Mag article, these are what your max press-up scores mean:

My score was 30 which puts me in the Good range. However, I revised this down after I saw a video about how the Royal Marines do their press-ups. They do ones where their hands are shoulder-width apart. I’ve always done mine a bit wider. This makes my elbows point out to the side when going down. The Royal Marine way is to do them so that your elbows stay close to your body when going down. Here’s the video:

And here’s another video confirming I’ve been doing press-ups wrong all my life!

Doing press-ups their way, I cranked out an arm-trembling 20, which puts me in the Average bracket.

Sit up test – max number in a minute

From the Mayo Clinic article:

I did 26 in a minute which is quite weak. From the table above, I should have scored around 37 in a minute.

I’ve used the technique and form that the Royal Marines use to make sure I’m doing them right:

Flexibility – sit and reach test

This is where I really struggle! My hamstrings are tight! My lower back is a bit fragile too, since putting it out a few years ago. I think my back problems stem from being too inflexible around my hamstrings, meaning that my range of movement is too limited and I instead put too much pressure and strain on my lower spine to achieve the range of movement.

Here’s how to do this test: get a tape measure and lay it on the floor. At the 15 inch point, put a pen or ruler across the tape at right angles. Sit down along the tape with your leg straight out and with your soles flush to the pen or ruler at the 15 inch mark. Reach forward as far as you can and note the measurement.

Mayo Clinic interprets the results this way:

I scored 3.5 inches, which is shockingly bad! Definitely need to improve this.

Waist circumference

This was humbling! My jeans from Uniqlo and shorts from Asos each say that I’m a 32in waist. I’ve suspected for years that brands massage our egos when it comes to waist size.

Measured at the widest point of my waist and above the hip bone and below the bottom rib, my waist measurement read……….

39.5 inches. WTF! I’m 5 foot 6! With a belly of that?!

This becomes even more pressing with the next test:

Measure Up.

This is your waist circumference divided by your hip/butt measurement.

From the Men’s Health article:

Take a look at yourself. If your belly is growing faster than your butt, you have bigger problems than figuring out how to get a tan without taking off your shirt. The more fat your body stores in your midsection, the higher your risk of heart disease. And this much we know: Fit men don’t get heart disease.
https://www.menshealth.com/fitness/a19534622/fitness-level-tests/

And this is the scorecard:

The Scorecard:
0.92 or higher: Your wife and kids are going to miss you
0.82 to 0.91: Ordinary
0.81 or less: Flat and happy
https://www.menshealth.com/fitness/a19534622/fitness-level-tests/

My hip measurement (taken at the widest point) is 40 inches.

My waist measurement is 39.5 inches, making my waist to hip ratio: 0.9875.

BMI

Using the NHS BMI calculator which takes into account my age and ethnicity, my BMI is 27.9 which is at the upper end of Overweight.

Touch the Rim. I’ll have to find a high thing to jump and touch.

Plank.

From Coach Mag:

How to do it: Hold your body in a straight line from head to heels. Keep your feet together and your elbows beneath your shoulders. Look straight down and brace for as long as you can. Focus on keeping your hips from sagging. When they do the test is over.
https://www.coachmag.co.uk/exercises/full-body-workouts/1861/6-tests-fitness

Time	Level
More than 2min	Excellent
75sec–2min	Good
45–75sec	Average
Less than 45sec	Poor

https://www.coachmag.co.uk/exercises/full-body-workouts/1861/6-tests-fitness

My initial score was 1 min and 1 second, which puts me in the average bracket.

Bodyweight Squat. 50 or more is Excellent

1km run. 3min or less is Excellent

500m row.

From Coach Mag:

What it targets: Your cardiovascular system and muscle co-ordination between the upper and lower body
How to do it: On a Concept2 rowing machine, select level ten resistance. Sit upright with your shoulders back and core braced. Drive with your legs.
https://www.coachmag.co.uk/exercises/full-body-workouts/1861/6-tests-fitness

Time	Level
1min 30 sec or less	Excellent
1min 31sec–1min 44sec	Good
1min 45sec–1min 59sec	Average
2min or more	Poor

https://www.coachmag.co.uk/exercises/full-body-workouts/1861/6-tests-fitness

I did the 500m row in 2min 08 seconds, which is Poor!

Pull-ups.

From Coach Mag:

How to do it: Grip the bar overhand, extend your arms fully and let your body hang. Pull up until your chin is over the bar, squeezing your lats. Lower again without swinging. The test is over when you can’t maintain perfect form.
https://www.coachmag.co.uk/exercises/full-body-workouts/1861/6-tests-fitness

Reps	Level
12 or more	Excellent
8–11	Good
4–7	Average
3 or fewer	Poor

https://www.coachmag.co.uk/exercises/full-body-workouts/1861/6-tests-fitness

I did 3 pull-ups on the initial test, which is Poor.

Trying to improve these test results as much as possible in a month!

How fit can I get in a month? (Part 1)

Edmond Chan · Oct 3, 2020 · Leave a Comment

It’s time for another challenge and life experiment. They always seem to come back to fitness.

I’ve been running about 15 miles a week for a few months now but not really seeing a difference to the belly, so I started to think about trying a different approach. I was thinking about how fit is it possible to get in one month?

What do we mean by ‘fit’? A Google search led me to a few interesting articles. This post will feature three of these articles and pick out the tests and metrics I’ll focus on:

How fit are you? See how you measure up (Mayo Clinic)
10 Standards to Assess Your Fitness Level: Before you stamp yourself “in shape,” make sure you can pass these fitness tests (Men’s Health)
Six Ways To Test Your Overall Fitness (Coach Mag)

Mayo Clinic

Here’s the one from the Mayo Clinic: How fit are you? See how you measure up

This article talks about measuring yourself against these standards:

(BTW I’ve written “Do this” next to the measures I’m going to use in the experiment):

Resting heart rate (Do this)
Fastest time to run 1.5 miles (Do this)
Number of press-ups to fatigue (Do this)
Sit up test – max number in a minute (Do this)
Flexibility – sit and reach test (Do this)
Waist circumference (Do this)
BMI (Do this)

Men’s Health

Here’s the article from Men’s Health: 10 Standards to Assess Your Fitness Level: Before you stamp yourself “in shape,” make sure you can pass these fitness tests

The 10 standards of fitness MH lists are:

Bench pressing 1.5x your body weight. For me that’s 120kg which is tough. My PB is around 85kg, which the article says is ‘Ordinary’. I don’t have access to gym at the moment, so I will leave this test for now and focus on the similar test of maximum pushups.
Run 1.5 Miles in 10 Minutes. The article says 12mins and above is ‘Slow’, which is 8min/miles. I run around 9.30min/miles for a 4 mile run, so according to this metric and MH’s standard, I’m definietly slow! (Do this)
Touch the Rim. I’ll have to find a high thing to jump and touch. (Do this)
Leg-Press 2.25 Times Your Weight. My PB is 130kg so well short of this currently. Like with the bench press test above, I don’t have access to a gym at the moment, so I’ll focus on the similar bodyweight squat test below.
Swim 700 Yards in 12 Minutes. Unfortunately, the pools are closed around here because of COVID restrictions.
Do 40 Pushups. I think the maximum press-ups to fatigue in the Mayo article above is more interesting.
Measure Up. This is your waist circumference divided by your hip/butt measurement. (Do this)
Run 300 Yards Sub 1 Minute. Not sure where I’d find a flat 300 yard bit of track. That’s 275m. I’ll think about this one a bit more.
Touch Your Toes. Similar to the Sit and Reach in the Mayo Clinic article above. (Do this)
Toss a Basketball 75 Feet Kneeling. Not sure how to replicate this.

Coach Mag

And finally, here’s an article from Coach Mag: Six Ways To Test Your Overall Fitness

The 6 standards of fitness they recommend as a measure are:

Plank. More than 2min is Excellent (Do this)
Bodyweight Squat. 50 or more is Excellent (Do this)
Press-ups. 50 or more is Excellent (Do this)
1km run. 3min or less is Excellent (Do this)
500m row. 1min 30 sec or less is Excellent (Do this)
Pull-ups. 12 or more is Excellent (Do this)

So the tests I’m going to do and try to improve on are:

Resting heart rate (Do this)
Fastest time to run 1.5 miles (Do this)
Number of press-ups to fatigue (Do this)
Sit up test – max number in a minute (Do this)
Flexibility – sit and reach test (Do this)
Waist circumference (Do this)
BMI (Do this)
Run 1.5 Miles in 10 Minutes. The article says 12mins and above is ‘Slow’, which is 8min/miles. I run around 9.30min/miles for a 4 mile run, so according to this metric and MH’s standard, I’m definitely slow! (Do this)
Measure Up. This is your waist circumference divided by your hip/butt measurement. (Do this)
Touch the Rim. I’ll have to find a high thing to jump and touch. (Do this)
Touch Your Toes. Similar to the Sit and Reach in the Mayo Clinic article above. (Do this)
Plank. More than 2min is Excellent (Do this)
Bodyweight Squat. 50 or more is Excellent (Do this)
1km run. 3min or less is Excellent (Do this)
500m row. 1min 30 sec or less is Excellent (Do this)
Pull-ups. 12 or more is Excellent (Do this)

In the next post in this series, I’m going to measure where I am for each of the tests in the previous section above.

What tests would you do for yourself? How fit do you think you are right? Let me know in the comments below!

God I love Chip

Edmond Chan · Aug 14, 2020 · Leave a Comment

Chip is a savings app that helps you to save effortlessly. I’ve written about Moneybox before about how their app helps you save without feeling the pinch. Chip does something similar but with AI.

You connect the app to your bank account and it looks at your previous spending history and what you’re spending currently and then somehow calculates what you could save without feeling the pinch.

You choose how aggressive you want the AI to be. I opted for the medium level at the beginning and now I play with the higher settings just to see how much more aggressive they really are. So every now and again, I get a message from Chip saying that I could save say £30 today without feeling the pinch, and that this will be moved from my bank account to Chip at 3pm. You can choose not to move it but I always let it go.

I opened my Chip account on 19th June 2020 and as of 14th August 2020, I have £182.40 in my Chip account. Annualised, that’s would be around £1,100. Not bad at all.

What would have happened to that money if I hadn’t been using Chip? I’d probably have spent it on some stuff I didn’t really need. With it gone to Chip, it’s out of spending reach. These apps that focus on the ‘small change’ that you wouldn’t even notice help you save effortlessly. Give it a go!