When it comes to health metrics, finishing at the top of the chart is just one way to measure fitness. And that’s how we at Ingram’s determined the winners of our various categories for overall fitness and greatest levels of improvement—giving the honors to those who finished with the highest combined scores across a broad range of 15 health metrics, all of which were rated on a scale of 1-10. A “perfect” score, in theory, would be 150, and those closest to that mark would be the winners in eight competition categories covering gender, age, overall fitness and improvement levels.
But fitness professionals at the Center for Health and Human Performance at the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park, which conducted the assessments, say there’s another way to view peak fitness. And, yes, it goes off the chart. They used an adjusted scoring basis to identify what they consider the fittest of the Fittest Execs. Adjusted scores are derived by awarding additional points to people whose health metrics exceeded the top of the scale created to measure such factors as cholesterol levels, blood pressure, aerobic capacity and more.
In doing so, they cite Ted Higgins of the Metropolitan Medical Society as a winner in both raw scoring and adjusted totals. Three other individuals, though, were considered fittest in the CHHP’s view because their adjusted scores topped those of competitors who finished ahead of them in the raw or actual scores:
Mark Fleischman, a Mohs surgeon with the Dermatology and Skin Cancer Center in Leawood, who had the highest adjusted score of any competitor. That was 192.66—nearly 43 points above the raw score ceiling. In CHHP’s view, that made him the fittest man under 50, and the fittest competitor in the original field of nearly 130 individuals. Fleischman, who has been a marathoner for a year and a half, was running neck-and-neck with running compatriot Scott Kashman in the raw scoring for Fittest Man Under 50 (Kashman’s adjusted score: 178.65). For the record: Fleischman is no fitness nut. “I have as much difficulty getting out of bed in the morning as anybody,” he said. “The natural human tendency is to be lazy.” But he does indeed get up, and he stressed the importance of that, at the executive level, with corporate-sponsored fitness programs. “We’re in the health-care field, and our employees see every day the results of not taking care of yourself. Being involved with this, it helps them focus on their own health by seeing providers taking an interest in our own health.”
Lana Knedlik, a patent attorney for the law firm of Stinson Morrison Hecker law firm. Her adjusted score of 173.78 was atop the field of women under 50. Using a fitness regimen that she says is “not very regimented,” Knedlik tries to work out at least twice a week, walking a couple of miles and doing leg lifts, sit-ups and using free weights for her arms. Weather permitting, “I also play softball on most weekends for a team called Girls Who Like Bacon. On Monday mornings, I am usually gimping around the office.” The best thing about the competition, she said, was that it gave her a better handle on where she stood. “It got me thinking about my own health in a measurable way. As a geeky patent lawyer, I actually enjoy looking at charts and analyzing data.”
Jennifer Marino of Holmes Murphy and Associates, who came in with a 151.82, the highest among women over 50. She did it by applying a commitment to walking—“that’s it: just walking,” she said. But there’s more to a proper fitness regimen than exercise alone, and Marino said the key there was “better food choices and portion control.” Like a lot of contestants, Marino found the most value in simply knowing where she stood, physically, at this point in her life, and in greater detail. The comprehensive readings of cholesterol levels, broken down by HDL/LDL ratios, plus glucose level, aerobic capacity, strength measurements and more gave her a better understanding of “what I needed to work on.” She works for a company that fully embraces the concept of bottom-line impact from a healthier work force, and through her experience with Fittest Execs Challenge, she says, “I am committed to myself and to keeping fit.” 