Brief Summary
Bryan Johnson introduces a series of seven at-home fitness tests designed to provide insights into one's biological age compared to their chronological age. These tests, demonstrated by Lauren, assess various aspects of physical fitness, including strength, flexibility, balance, reaction time, and body composition. The goal is to empower individuals to establish a baseline understanding of their physical health and track improvements over time.
- Six free tests can be performed at home to assess biological age.
- Biological age reflects physical function, contrasting with chronological age.
- Data tracking enables comparison and motivates personal improvement.
Bryan Johnson discusses the importance of data in assessing and improving one's health and biological age. He highlights that while comprehensive data collection can be expensive, it provides a baseline for comparison against others and for tracking personal progress. The video introduces six free at-home tests to offer a snapshot of biological age, plus a seventh bonus test that requires a $20 device.
Lauren, a new member of the Blueprint team with a PhD, is introduced. She will be assisting in demonstrating the fitness tests. Lauren explains her background in cutting-edge science and research and her role in bringing this knowledge to the public.
The first test involves continuous push-ups to assess upper body strength. Bryan explains the difference between chronological age (time lived) and biological age (functional representation). Lauren, a 30-year-old, performs push-ups with proper technique (shoulder-width apart, chest touching the tape, full extension). The average for a 30-year-old female is eight push-ups; exceeding this indicates a younger biological age. Lauren impressively completes 40 push-ups, placing her in the "excellent" category and equating to an 18-year-old's biological age for this test.
The second test, the sit and rise test, measures overall body strength and stability. Lauren sits down with legs crossed and rises without using hands, knees, or elbows. Points are deducted for any support used or instability. Lauren achieves a perfect score of 10 out of 10, demonstrating excellent strength and balance. Bryan notes the difficulty of this test, especially with age, and its importance in indicating basic bodily strength.
The third test assesses flexibility, specifically in the hamstrings and lower back, which is important for injury prevention and overall fitness. Lauren performs a sit and reach test with a specific setup involving a measuring tape. She positions her feet at the 15-inch mark and reaches forward, aiming to exceed 19 inches to be above average. Lauren achieves a reach of 21 and 3/4 inches, successfully passing the flexibility test.
This test evaluates balance, a predictor of all-cause mortality for individuals over 41. Lauren stands on one leg with eyes closed, arms at her sides, and the other foot wrapped around the standing leg. The average time for her age group is 17 seconds. She performs three attempts, achieving 29 seconds, 18 seconds, and an impressive 1 minute and 33 seconds on her non-dominant leg, showcasing exceptional balance.
The fifth test measures reaction time and reflexes using a mobile app called "Reaction Time and Reflex Test." Lauren plays a game where she removes her finger from the screen as quickly as possible when lights go out. She performs five trials with each hand, achieving a best score of 259. Bryan notes that reaction time typically slows with age and is more pronounced in women.
This test assesses body composition and visceral fat, offering an alternative to BMI. Lauren's height is measured at 60 inches, and her waist circumference is 28.5 inches. The calculated waist-to-height ratio is 0.48, which is better than the target of 0.5, indicating a healthy body composition.
The final, bonus test measures grip strength using a dynamometer, costing $20. The average score is 62 lbs, with 91 lbs being off the charts. Lauren performs three attempts, achieving scores of 84 lbs, 85.4 lbs, and finally 96 lbs, exceeding the "off the charts" mark and demonstrating exceptional grip strength.
Bryan concludes by emphasising that these tests provide intuition about biological age and that improvements are possible regardless of initial results. He clarifies that these tests are not a comprehensive health assessment but an entry point for understanding and improving one's health. He encourages viewers to establish a baseline and systematically work towards incremental improvements, using Lauren's exceptional performance as inspiration.
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Transcript
Full transcript of “Test Your Biological Age For $0”. Click a timestamp to open the video at that moment. Need another video? Use the YouTube transcript generator.
0:00 over the past few years I think we've built the world's best anti-aging protocol now the secret to Our Success has been data science begins with counting I've become the most measured person in human history we've measured every part of my body the problem is getting data cost money have to do blood work and imaging and BO2 Max tests it can be very expensive as I found out so today we're going to give you the same intuitions of why data is valuable it allows you to know your Baseline it allows you to compare yourself with others your age and older or younger and it gives you something to use to compare yourself for improvement So today we're going to give you six tests you can do at home they're free and it'll give you a snapshot of your biological age plus a
0:45 seventh as a bonus if you have $20 you can spend let's go joining me today for the fitness test is my coworker Lauren who just joined the blint team and finished her PhD Lauren do you want to come say hi hey friends yeah as Brian said my name is Lauren I just finished my PhD where I studied single molecule detection using solid state nanopores now I'm here with the blueprint team where I look at the most Cutting Edge science and research and we bring it all to you at home Lauren I'm glad you're here thank you okay what we're trying to do here is build intuition around the difference between a chronological age and a biological age a chronological age is the duration you've lived on this Earth your biological age is a representation of your function so for example Lauren is a 30-year-old female
1:32 and for continuous push-ups average would be eight now if Lauren does less than eight push-ups she's older biologically than her chronological age if she does more push-ups she's biologically younger let's do it I'm ready now as Lauren does this she's going to have her arms uh about shoulder width apart and she's going to come down and touch her chest to the top of this tape and then come back up and be fully extended that technique is important of course because if you don't do a full extension or go all the way down you might be able to do more push-ups but it's not truly representative of the actual age test okay
2:17 [Music] readyy five 6 7 8 3 4 25 26 27 28 29 30 she's crushing this 31 [Music] 32 6 37 38 39 40 W Lauren oh my gosh 40 P yeah that was rough how badly does that hurt my chest is on fire you're
3:02 burning yeah but it was so worth it that score in the data set uh more than 16 push-ups for a female put you in the excellent category and Lauren just absolutely blew past that with 40 crushed it so amazing job thank you thank you so that would be basically equivalent to be age 18 for your biological age for continuous push-ups that's what I wanted to hear let's see how I do on the other test that's a great start all right next is sit rise test what Lauren's going to do is she's going to sit down into her legs being crisscross applesauce and try not to use her knees forearms elbows and then she's going to rise back up now if she uses any of her body parts including her knees her elbows to either get down or
3:47 come up it's minus one point per touch so if she use her knees and arm maybe minus two points you can score 10 points total minus one for every infraction now if there's any unsteadiness As She Goes Down it's minus5 let's go all [Music] right okay okay like a champ 10 out of 10 that was stable there were no uh touch points on the ground so Lauren again 10 out of 10 thank you so perfect score now it's worth noting as soon as you try this you're going to realize just how hard this is Lauren made this do look very easy it's not and as you age it gets
4:33 harder and harder and it shows the basic strength you have in your body to sit down and stand up so pay attention that as you age you want to build the muscles that allow you to do this at least to an eight or above next up is flexibility sit and reach we're going to measure Lauren's flexibility specifically her hamstrings and lower back now flexibility is really important for injury prevention risk of falling and overall Fitness in this one we have a careful setup which you'll see and Lauren is going to try to exceed 19 in to be better than average she wants to get the biggest number possible so la let's see how we do let's set this up okay the way we have this set up is we have this measuring tape that is taped here uh this is zero and this is 15 in
5:20 so Lauren is going to put her feet so she aligns with 15 in then she's going to keep her legs straight and see how far she can reach and I'm going to watch where her finger lands on the tape this is 19 right here so you see how far she has to extend to be average all right Lauren let's try it okay so her feet on the 15 yep 15inch line and then she puts her hands out she can pulse but she does have to hold this for a little bit okay it's good all right Lauren got 21 and 3/4 so Lauren you're three for three great job thanks so much okay next up is eyes closed one leg stand we're
6:07 looking at balance this is actually a really good predictor of all cause mortality for people older 41 older you're looking at balance so what lawen going to do she's going to choose a foot take the other foot and wrap it around the side arms arms down to the side and then close her eyes and she's going to see how long she can stay upright without falling over now average for her age is 17 seconds of course if she does more it's better CU she gets three total tries all right Lauren you are three for three in your test so far maxing out all the ranges how are you feeling about this test I'm feeling a little bit good but let's see okay so as soon as you're ready and your foot comes up and your eyes closed I will start the timer okay I'm going to choose my right
6:52 [Music] leg okay 29 seconds that's [Music] great no 18 seconds no so yep well done so that's number two so in both cases she was better than average do you want to try a third time okay let's do the left leg let's just for fun let's see okay let's go [Music] okay maybe my left leg is better [Music] you're going to break a minute in 6 [Music]
7:38 seconds oh okay I lost 133 that's my non-dominant L too I wonder amazing comeback 29 seconds uh 18 or 19 yeah and then a minute 33 amazing job okay yeah so four for four Lauren is crushing every test all right so check where you should be on this graphic so you have a point of reference when you do the test all right next up is reaction time and reflex test we're going to see Lauren's reaction speed now this is really important because as you age you get slower in responding to things now this is important because it's more pronounced
8:23 in women than in men but it creates risk in life you want a fast reaction time to do this we're going to use an app reaction time and reflex test and going going to play a game lights out so the game you're going see Lauren's finger on screen five lights will come on and her task is remove her finger as fast as possible when the lights go out she'll get a score and she'll repeat this trial five times we're going to start okay oh that's so intense let's try the left hand let's see
9:09 better wow best score yet. 259 oh your score all right Lauren great job. 29 was your score so as you age reaction time gets longer all right next up is waist to height ratio now this is important because you're looking at body composition and specifically visceral fat many people prefer this over BMI because of the accuracy of the visual fat now we're trying to achieve better than 0.5 ratio first let's go over here and get her height we have here a 60in tape I'm not sure if it's going to be adequate or not but Lauren do you want to stand over here yep all right go ahead and come out okay looks like exactly 60 in this tape
9:57 measure was made for me and now for for waist now for this measurement Lauren's going to want to have the most narrow point between the ribs and the hip you'll want to avoid sucking in the stomach and be in a relaxed State there we so looks like 28.5 28 and A2 let's do some math let's do some math and Lauren your result is 48 so again exceeding the Mark you are six for six I'm excited thank you now check your score at home on this chart now for the final and seventh test is grip strength Lauren you're 6 for six the average score here is 62 lb off the charts will be
10:43 91 okay how are you feeling not confident but I'm going to try get my all right do you have a technique or an approach I'm just going to be angry and there we go okay [Music] okay no oh 84 84 is great oh I want to break 90 okay how about three tries here okay we I Wonder If you yelled if it would give you additional like a higher score okay the 84 all right okay oh 8 a little better 85.4 so she's getting very close to breaking through off the chart okay one more time
11:29 [Music] time oh 96 85 84 85 and 96 off the charts what a way to end the testing wow I didn't think it could get that high yeah for me personally so you guys we have to say Lauren is definitely an exception to the rule I don't know if I would expect to show up and do all seven tests and be off the charts Lauren you really did an amazing job today thank thank you so much okay that was the last test it was a bonus because this device costs $20 on Amazon the others are free to do so I hope what you learned today is you built some intuition on what biological age means that you can be chronologically a certain age but you
12:15 can function much younger or older and not to be discouraged if you get a result you don't like you can improve so this is by no means a comprehensive assessment of your health there are other markers to look at including blood work and your speed of aging and imaging but this is just an entry point for you to understand you can Baseline your age with a measurement and then systematically work to improve yourself now Lauren was a great example today she was off the charts and almost everything if you're not there yet that's okay getting your base on measurements allow you to assess where you're out in life and then it's the fun game of trying to improve yourself incrementally
