Try Googling "functional fitness assessment older adults." What you'll get back is a stack of academic papers. Systematic reviews. Sensor-based gait analysis studies. Nothing that actually tells you, in plain language, what this is or why it matters. Why? Because although there is tons of well-validated research on the topic, most if it has just never made it out of the journals and into anything a person can actually use. So here's the plain-language version, specifically wh

Everyone's watch has an opinion about your VO2 max now. Garmin, WHOOP, Oura, Apple Watch — pull up the app and there it is, a number supposedly telling you how fit you are. Turns out that number is mostly a guess. Your watch doesn't, and physically cannot, measure VO2 max. Instead, it estimates it using your heart rate and your pace. A real VO2 max test measures the actual gas you're breathing in and out while you work at your cardiometabolic limit. Your watch has none of tha