A week ago, a trio from the newsroom ventured to the Albany Athletic Club to test ourselves in the President’s Challenge adult fitness test, which measures  a person’s capacity in the areas of muscular strength, aerobic fitness, flexibility and body composition.

As it did a year ago when five of us took the test, the AAC donated the use of its facility free of charge. We remain grateful for the hospitality of the very nice, very well-kept club.

Karen Petersen, Jessica Coudare and I comprised this year’s collection of testees; the entire newsroom was invited, but the others, for a variety of reasons did not/could not/would not attend.

Not sure what the others did, but I “trained” for the test for the first and only time a couple days prior to the event by doing pushups for the first time since last year’s test. Still, I felt I’d do all right since I get a fair amount of exercise between playing sports and working around our place.

And, as a matter of fact, I improved in every category, mainly because:

a) I actually warmed up this time, and

b) I did my cardio portion of the test — a 1.5-mile run on the club’s tight, 19-laps-to-the-mile indoor track — when the track was free of other users (last year I was constantly cutting and dodging to avoid others; it was more of a running backs drill than a timed run).

Here were my results:

– 75 pushups, which put me in the 95th percentile for my age and gender

– 85 half situps in a minute (also 95th percentile)

– 10:55 in the run (80th percentile)

– A score of 16 in the sit and reach (60th percentile; flexibility has never been my thing)

– Body mass index of 25.5 (5-foot-7, 163 pounds, 34-inch waist); according to the BMI, I am still “overweight” and at “increased risk of disease,” but I’ve come to conclude the BMI was invented mainly with people like Abe Lincoln in mind. Think about it: The BMI would tell OSU football star Jacquizz Rodgers (5-6, 195 pounds) that he’s morbidly obese.

– An overall score in the 82nd percentile.

Jessica hasn’t gotten around to giving me her numbers, but Karen scored 90 percent in half situps, 60 percent in pushups, 85 percent in aerobic fitness, 80 percent in flexibility and 78 percent overall. Tallish and lean, she even received a passing grade of “normal” from the BMI.

Here’s a pic of those two following completion of the test (the basketball and the little medicine ball are just props):

fit-testers

Karen Petersen, left, and Jessica Coudare.