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The fittest of them all

Scott DeTore, 41, and Raquel Feder, 36, beat out the competition in Newsday's Superfit LI contest.

BY JOHN HANC | Special to Newsday

May 8, 2007

Muscles flexed. Sweat droplets flew. Computer screens flashed, and needles flickered.

On a recent Wednesday evening, the six finalists in Newsday's "Superfit" contest, as selected by readers in an online vote at Newsday.com, underwent a battery of tests at Adelphi University's Human Performance Laboratory.

They ran on treadmills until they were ready to drop from exhaustion. They performed super-slow pull-ups until their muscles screamed for relief. They also stretched as far as they could, laid on a table while their bones were scanned by X-rays, and even got themselves dunked into what looked like a giant hot tub to determine their body-fat percentages.

It took more than three hours for all six finalists to be evaluated and another two days for the results to be analyzed. When the number crunching was done, Adelphi exercise science professor Bob Otto, director of the lab, declared the winners: Scott DeTore, 41, of East Moriches, a physical-education teacher and former high school and college wrestler; and Raquel "Rocky" Feder, 36, of Oceanside, a fitness instructor and mother of three.

"Fitness has always been, and always will be, my life. It feels really good to be recognized," Feder said after winning the contest. DeTore was also pleased to win. "It's a prestigious title to have, and I feel really good about it," he said.

The tests evaluated the contestants' physical fitness the same way that the American College of Sports Medicine defines it, as a "multidimensional concept" that includes cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, flexibility and body composition.

Normally, there are significant differences between individuals in all these categories. Not among the "Superfit" - particularly the men. DeTore and Rich Gregory, 42, of Garden City, registered remarkably similar - and equally superb - scores. Consider:

DeTore did 10 pull-ups; Gregory, a triathlete, completed 9.

DeTore had 9.1 percent body fat. Gregory's was measured at 12.3 (The average for sedentary American males in their 40s is 27-28 percent.)

Gregory's maximum oxygen consumption, a measure of aerobic fitness, put him in the 99th percentile. DeTore was in the 95th.

In both flexibility and bone density, the two were virtually identical. "Seldom do you come up with these kinds of results," Otto said. "You have two amazing athletes here."

On the narrowest of margins, as little as one pull-up or 3 percentage points of body fat, DeTore was named the winner.

The third male finalist, Buddy Casimano, was no slouch either. Not surprisingly, considering his background, the 36-year-old former Broadway dancer from Merrick demonstrated the greatest flexibility. He also can do a flip from a standing position, something he demonstrated to the applause of the Adelphi staff and the other finalists. (Alas, there is no fitness test to measure that).

The women were close, as well.

Feder was tops in flexibility, bone density and V02 max (the maximum amount of oxygen the body can use in one minute per kilogram of body weight), while bodybuilder Glenda Bozett was the strongest (she performed an impressive five pull-ups), and U.S. Navy Reserve Lt. Victoria Gigante, 24, was first in body composition (she had 16.5 percent body fat, compared to the high 20s for a sedentary female of her age.)

Based on these results, Otto named Feder the winner.

Gigante said she felt "honored" to be among the finalists. "I kind of feel like I'm representing the ordinary person," she said (a modest statement, considering that her fitness levels were outstanding, as well.)

Still, it was Feder who exemplified not only the muscle, but the mind-set shared by all the finalists: a work ethic that helps explain just how these six maintain their super-fitness.

"Tomorrow I'm going into the gym," she said resolutely after the testing, "and I'm going to work on getting better at pull-ups."

Fittest Woman: