PRIME AGE BENCHMARK

The Prime Age Benchmark

When science describes the time that the general population reaches its optimum health, it is describing the average individual in that population, using the average person.

Research suggests that we reach our physical peek between the ages of 28 and 35. This is The Prime Age Benchmark.

Therefore, the average person starts the downward spiral of degenerative ageing around 35.

When Are You At Your Peak

To describe men or women at their prime, we need to consider when they are at their peak in relationship to the body’s various functions. Not forgetting that there are differences among the sexes.

The main functional components that make up the Prime Age benchmark are:

  • Cardiovascular-pulmonary systems that relate to endurance.

  • Muscular strength, power, nerve conductivity, flexibility, agility and balance that relates to movement.

  • Cognitive ability as it relates to perceiving, thinking, and learning.

  • Sexual functioning as it affects libido.

  • Digestive and catalytic systems that supply energy.

  • Skin tone and physical presence that relate to attractiveness.

At a point in time, we lose efficiency in each of our age functioning components. This loss happens at different times with the different functioning components.

  • After the age of 40 we lose muscle mass and strength and have less ability to burn calories.

  • Around 50, we have sleep issues.

  • Men hit their sexual peak when they are 18 and women in their late 30s.

  • At 25, our metabolism starts to slow down.

  • When our activity level drops our bone density lessens.

  • Our aerobic capacity starts to drop off when we reach 40.

  • At around 45, the organs of the body start to shrink

So, on an average basis 28 to 35 is an acceptable point in a general population person’s life when they are at their prime age benchmarks. The reason science has come up with that conclusion is that at some time in a person’s life they will enjoy optimal levels of health and energy and will hit their physical peak.

Is it possible to be 70 with a biological age of 35?

The prime age depends on a person’s life style, nutrition, activity levels, and genetics.  That point in time is different for all of us when our body starts to let us down, but when considering all the starting points of degeneration in our age functional components the average age is 35.

The basis for the above prime age benchmark is the average individual from the general population and if we look around the average person is not a model that we should emulate.

Is this a misleading concept?

If you study the individual, who approaches life style, nutrition and activity at optimum levels the deterioration of these age functional components will happen at a much later date. Therefore, it is quite possible to have a 70-year-old with a biological age of 35 when comparing to the biological and chronological age of the average individual from the general population.