How to measure your fitness?
We spend so much
time concentrating on what types of exercise we do, that we don’t consider how
effective measuring our fitness can be. Fitness assessments can be regarded as
a great motivating tool to help us reach our goals.
If you don’t
have access to trained staff with their fancy tools and machines at your
fitness centre don’t worry, you can evaluate
your muscular strength and endurance, flexibility, and cardiovascular endurance
your own way!
For your
cardiovascular fitness, a basic
walking or running test can be used. Also known as the Cooper
Test, this test is used widely among runners. The test is designed to
identify how far you can walk or run for the duration of the test (12minutes).
After a 5 minute warm up, using a flat gradient either on a track or a
treadmill, the participant should walk or run at as fast a pace as you can sustain. Record the data and
compare to the values below. Compare to previous attempts to identify personal
improvement:
o 1.46
miles (2.35km) or more = excellent
o 1.33
to 1.45 miles (2.14 to 2.33km) = good
o 1.32
to 1.26 miles (2.12 to 2.03km) = fair
o 1.25
miles (2.01km) or less = poor
Testing your core strength is a great way to measure
your core stability in your trunk. The Plank will
tell you whether you have any core strength! If you
can hold the position (but not your breath!) for more than one minute,
then you are strong to the core. A time of 30 to 60 seconds is average, while
less than 30 seconds means that you need to work on it more. Get Planking and
see if you can improve your time at every attempt!!
Counting
the number of beats of your resting heart rate (RHR) is a useful way of indicating your
fitness progress. It should reduce as your aerobic fitness improves. Your resting heart rate represents the number
of times your heart beats each minute when you are at rest. A lower RHR tends
to correspond with higher aerobic fitness (for example, cyclist Lance
Armstrong’s RHR was allegedly only 32 beats per minute at the peak of his
fitness).
To measure your RHR, place two fingers on your
wrist, below the thumb, to locate the radial pulse, and then count the number
of beats you feel in 60 seconds. Do this first thing in the morning before you
get up or eat/drink anything or do any exercise.
o 60 or less = good
o 61 to 80 = average
o 81 to 100 = high, but still considered acceptable
o 101 or more = abnormally high (not good!)
Your resting heart rate is a useful marker of
your fitness progress, as it will drop as you get fitter.
To assess leg
strength and endurance a very simple way to do this is the Wall sit test. This exercise test – in which you sit on an ‘invisible chair’ against a
wall until your thighs tighten – gives a good idea of your lower-body strength.
Find a wall space, lean your back against
it and shuffle your feet forward. Slide your back down the wall until your knee
and hip joints are at a right angle
(90degrees), and then start your stopwatch. Hold the position as
long as you can bear – breathing freely.
o 76
seconds or more for men / 46 seconds or more for women = very good
o 58
to 75 seconds for men / 36 to 45 seconds for women = average
o 57
to 30 seconds for men / 35 to 20 seconds for women = below average
o 30
seconds or less for men / 20 seconds or less for women = poor
Do this test in
front of the TV to distract away from any pain! Repeat this test once a week
and see if your leg strength has improved!
To assess upper body muscular endurance Push-ups are a great indicator of your upper body strength and the
progress of your muscle building exercise. Technically, this test measures
muscular endurance rather than pure strength, as it is based on how many you can do in a
fixed period of time rather than how much weight you can lift. Push-ups
challenge the chest, shoulder and upper arm muscles – and require good core
stability.
o 0 or more for men / 25 or more for women =
excellent
o 25 to 29 for men / 20 to 24 for women = good
o 20 to 24 for men / 15 to 19 for women = not bad
o 19 or less for men / 14 or less for women = needs
work!
