Think you’ll make it to 100 years old? Well… can you walk across a balance beam while holding a tube of water?
How about crawl across a 40-foot cargo net? Or clamber over wooden boxes?
Those are just some of the hurdles in the brand new Super Age Games, the world’s first longevity fitness competition, which aims to test not how jacked your muscles are but how well you’re aging.
Perform well and you may not just be more likely to reach centenarian status — you’re also more likely to have an easier time as you get up there in years.
Most fitness competitions measure speed, strength, endurance or some combination of the three — think Hyrox or Ironman.
The Super Age Games, though, look at aging markers like VO2 max, balance, agility and memory, with a goal of making people realize that aging well is accessible to everyone, not just biohackers with pricey gadgets.
“So much of the stuff that we hear around longevity is basically tech bros getting weird in their basement,” David Stewart, the 68-year-old founder of longevity media platform Super Age, told The Post.
“The genesis of Super Age was to help people understand and reduce the contradictory confusion of all the noise that’s out there,” he went on. And if they change a few behaviors? Even better.
Most importantly, the Games focus not just on living longer but on how long you’ll live well. Stewart and his team worked with experts at The Buck Institute for Research on Aging to figure out the basics of the eight trials: six physical, one cognitive and one social.
One key consideration? You don’t have to suffer to live a long, healthy life. In fact, Stewart said, they want to be an antidote to the “grim vibes” of Hyrox and the crazy antics of biohacker billionaires.
“The challenges themselves are accessible, but they’re also entertaining,” he explained. “It’s got to be fun.”
Let the trials begin — and may the odds be ever in your favor
The inaugural Games were held in Manhattan on Saturday, Nov. 7, and my New York Post colleague Patrice Peck and I were there to put our own minds and bodies to the test.
Competition nerves from my days as a figure skater came roaring back as I stepped inside The Armory, surrounded by nearly 750 incredibly fit-looking people of all ages, from 20 to 80.
Participant Denise Kirtley, the 56-year-old founder of the LA-based fitness company Rebellion Body, said that she loved that this competition isn’t just about strength.
“It’s about true longevity, those other indicators that we also need to age well,” told The Post.
First up was The Over Under, an obstacle course that alternates between climbing over a 42-inch box and crawling under an 18-inch bungee set.
While I regularly lift weights and run a few times a week, in my 35 years, I’ve never specifically trained dynamic agility, the crux of this obstacle.
This was easily my most awkward trial. I watched others effortlessly leap over the boxes while I struggled to pull myself up with my lackluster arm strength. I found my groove, though, learning to approach the box with a leap… although I got some nasty bruises.
The death predictor test — and keeping your mind sharp
Next up, The Inferno. With a name like that, what’s not to be intimidated by?
To test VO2 max, the single strongest predictor of death, we went as hard as we could for four minutes on an assault bike. As a long-time cyclist, I felt confident — and my wattage output was in the middle of my age group.
The third trial, The Synapse, offered a breather. Aging well isn’t just about maintaining a strong, capable body, but also keeping your mind sharp. So to test memory, competitors don 3D glasses to track moving objects on a screen.
Our fellow competitor Alexandra Mack, a personal trainer, said this is where she needed to pay special attention while training.
“I’m already testing my aerobic capacity often in terms of running and sprinting,” the 39-year-old said. “I’ve been doing a lot of crossword puzzles and fun games to challenge my mental capacity as well.”
Your whole life hangs in the balance
Trial number four, “The Tightrope,” involved walking forwards and backwards across a low 12-foot long beam. Oh, and we had to carry a 15-pound water tube while doing it.
This isn’t the kind of thing you’d see a bodybuilder working on at the gym, but it can measure the body’s internal GPS, one of the most underrated longevity markers.
Case in point: A 2022 study found that middle-aged and older adults who couldn’t stand on one leg for 10 seconds had an 84% higher risk of dying over the next seven years.
Fortunately, if my balance score is any indication — covering 62 feet in two minutes — I’ll be living longer than most at my age.
I didn’t fare quite so well in the next trial, The Hang, which had us dead hang from a bar as long as we could, engaging muscles all over our bodies from our hands to our arms to our cores.
Strength is incredibly important as we age, helping us keep our bones strong, prevent falls and even have healthier brains and hearts.
I gave it my best shot and hung on for a measly 23 seconds. Patrice, though, set the record of the day so far, hanging for 3 minutes and 35 seconds.
We’re all in this together
We got another break for The Sync, which looked at social skills with challenges like identifying emotions on a person’s face and responding to various social situations (like, how would you react if a friend cancels on dinner at the last minute?).
This is a much bigger factor in aging than most people realize: Research shows that people who feel they belong to a community are 2.6 times more likely to report good or excellent health than those without, while loneliness increases risk of premature death by over a quarter.
“This longevity thing is not a solo enterprise,” Stewart said. “It’s about connecting to other humans. It’s a community thing.”
To that end, the Games encourage socialization and allow teams to compete — like me and Patrice, or Kirtley with her large group comprised of nearly 60 middle-aged men and women.
The penultimate challenge was The Net, which measures functional strength and coordination… via a crawl across a horizontal cargo net.
Tough? Sure. But I was mostly freaking out that I’d get my foot caught in one of the holes and it would be embarrassing. Luckily, my fears didn’t come true — and I actually quite enjoyed it, feeling like a kid playing.
Finally, we finished with The Super Age 800, which involved running or walking 800 meters while carrying a weighted sandbag of 15, 25 or 35 pounds to give all our functional systems a workout.
So… how well am I aging?
Going into the Games, I didn’t doubt I wouldn’t be able to complete any of the tasks, but I was nervous about how well or uncoordinated I’d move through them.
But Kai Mathey, senior vice president of partnerships at Super Age, assured me that speed isn’t the goal. Rather, “it’s being intentional about getting through each trial.”
That being said, you do get scored, between 5% and 100% per trial — numbers that are then compared with competitors of the same sex and age.
That gets combined with results from a quiz about your lifestyle habits and you’re given a final “Super Age,” what your fitness age is compared to the general US population.
My preliminary Super Age was 33 (two years younger than I am), and my lifespan forecast was 81 to 85, roughly around the average for a person my age (though they said final numbers would take a week). Patrice, at 39, has the functioning body of a 36-year-old, and is expected to live between 83 and 85 years.
While I’ve never thought about the exact age I would die, it would be nice to live to a healthy 85. And although it’s good to see my body functioning at a younger age, I think there’s room for improvement.
After all that, I’m seriously considering competing again next year, if only to see how I’ve improved… and for a redemption arc.
