For most of my life, I knew exactly how good I was. I was a professional dancer. You train every single day until your turns get cleaner and your balance holds a little longer. Then you compete and then you train for the next competition. You live for points and for standing on the top of the podium. It’s measurable and simple: either you take first place, or you don’t.
When my dancing career ended, I felt lost. Dance shapes your identity so strongly that when it’s gone, you don’t really know who you are or what to do next. You’re back at square one. So I started discovering new ways of movement. I took up running, discovered strength training, started playing tennis, and learned how to swim. But it never felt rewarding.
I had no idea how good I was, because I wasn’t competing in one discipline anymore. No category, no judges, no scoreboard.
Then my goal shifted completely. When I started working in healthy longevity, I stopped training to win and started trying to improve my overall performance. Honestly, I didn’t know what I was doing. I just wanted to be good at everything: running, strength, tennis and even swimming (which, to be fair, looks more like me surviving in the pool :D).
Paused · click to exploreInteractive · strength drops faster than muscle
Muscle mass100%Your muscle at 30
Leg strength
100%Lifts 100 kg at 30
Muscle massLeg strength
Until about 50, muscle and strength fall at a similar, slow pace.
Averages from studies, compared with age 30.
And along the way I learned something uncomfortable: from your 30s, your body starts to change quietly, whether you’re paying attention or not.
Somewhere around your 30s, muscle mass starts to decline. It’s slow at first, roughly 3–8% every 10 years, so you probably won’t notice it in the mirror. But it adds up, and after about 60 the loss speeds up. When it becomes severe enough to affect daily life, it’s called sarcopenia.
The surprising part is that strength drops faster than muscle size, about two to four times faster. That’s because strength isn’t only about how much muscle you have, but how well your nervous system can switch it on.
A new scoreboard for healthy aging
Hover over a photo to see how each one is measured.
As a dancer, I had one scoreboard. Now I have seven. None of them is about winning: they show me where I am today and what to work on next. Try it yourself below. Put in your own results and see where you land. Stay happy and healthy!
Paused · click to exploreInteractive scoreboard
PassPower · 1.80 m
PassCardio · 8:30
PassLegs · 25% × 8
PassPull-ups · 2 reps
PassMobility · 3/3
PassRoll downs · 30
PassSit & stand · No support
7/7passed
Broad jump
Pass 1.70 mAdvanced 2 m
Pass: jump your own height. Advanced: 2 m or more.
1.6 km run
Advanced
Pass
Not yet
5:00 · fasterslower · 16:00
That’s 5:19 per km.
Pass: under 10:00. Advanced: under 7:00.
Lower body strength
Pass 25%Adv. 30%
Reps per leg 8
Pass: reverse lunges, 25% of your bodyweight in each hand, 8 reps per leg. Advanced: Bulgarian split squat, 30% in each hand, 8 reps per leg.
Pull-ups
Pass: 1 chin-up with your own bodyweight. Advanced: 5 clean reps with your own bodyweight.
Upper body mobility
Pass: all three, without compensating.
Roll downs
Pass 25Adv. 50
Pass: 25 controlled roll downs. Advanced: 50.
Sit down and stand up
Start standing with your legs crossed. Pass: down and up without hands, knees or support. Advanced: on one leg.
SourcesVolpi E, Nazemi R, Fujita S. Muscle tissue changes with aging. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2004;7(4):405–410.Goodpaster BH, et al. The loss of skeletal muscle strength, mass, and quality in older adults: the Health, Aging and Body Composition Study. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2006;61(10):1059–1064.Skelton DA, Greig CA, Davies JM, Young A. Strength, power and related functional ability of healthy people aged 65–89 years. Age Ageing. 1994;23(5):371–377.Mitchell WK, et al. Sarcopenia, dynapenia, and the impact of advancing age on human skeletal muscle size and strength; a quantitative review. Front Physiol. 2012;3:260.Kemmler W, et al. Changes of maximum leg strength indices during adulthood: a cross-sectional study with non-athletic men aged 19–91. Front Physiol. 2018;9:1524.Brito LBB, et al. Ability to sit and rise from the floor as a predictor of all-cause mortality. Eur J Prev Cardiol. 2014;21(7):892–898.Clark BC, Manini TM. Sarcopenia ≠ dynapenia. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2008;63(8):829–834.Cruz-Jentoft AJ, et al. Sarcopenia: revised European consensus on definition and diagnosis (EWGSOP2). Age Ageing. 2019;48(1):16–31.
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