Fitness Tests You Can Do At Home
Why do you exercise ? Whether it is just a way of life, you want to improve your health, lose weight, look good on the beach, or participate in exercise for health related reasons. And do you ever wonder how well you are doing with your personal fitness goals. A great way to check your progress and set future goals is to do a fitness test.
Most gym's will have trained staff who can help you with a fitness test, and they can measure your body composition, muscular strength and endurance. These fitness test can often cost a lot of money, but do not worry because you have everything that you need for a fitness test in your own home.
Push Up Test
Press ups will test your muscular strength and endurance at the same time which makes this a useful test
All you need is a stopwatch to time 1 minute.
Aim: Do as many press ups as you can in one minute. If you want to be very precise with this test then get a friend to place their fist on the ground, do the press up over their fist with the aim of striking their fist with your chest with every press up. This will force you to do a full range press up for every repetition and allow you to really know how many full range press ups you can do. You can also use any object around the house that is the height of a fist to do this test You may prefer to just count how many press ups you can do without striking an object with the chest if you prefer. Most military groups who test recruits strength will do the fist on the ground version of the press up test.
Men should try and do full press ups
Women should try half press ups with knees on the ground (or full press ups if you feel comfortable with them)
Most gym's will have trained staff who can help you with a fitness test, and they can measure your body composition, muscular strength and endurance. These fitness test can often cost a lot of money, but do not worry because you have everything that you need for a fitness test in your own home.
Push Up Test
Press ups will test your muscular strength and endurance at the same time which makes this a useful test
All you need is a stopwatch to time 1 minute.
Aim: Do as many press ups as you can in one minute. If you want to be very precise with this test then get a friend to place their fist on the ground, do the press up over their fist with the aim of striking their fist with your chest with every press up. This will force you to do a full range press up for every repetition and allow you to really know how many full range press ups you can do. You can also use any object around the house that is the height of a fist to do this test You may prefer to just count how many press ups you can do without striking an object with the chest if you prefer. Most military groups who test recruits strength will do the fist on the ground version of the press up test.
Men should try and do full press ups
Women should try half press ups with knees on the ground (or full press ups if you feel comfortable with them)
Half press up on the knees. Keep the pelvis fully forward.
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Full press up: Keep knees off the ground
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Results
20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60+
Excellent > 54 > 44 > 39 > 34 > 29
Good 45-54 35-44 30-39 25-34 20-29
Average 35-44 24-34 20-29 15-24 10-19
Poor 20-34 15-24 12-19 8-14 5-9
Very Poor < 20 < 15 < 12 < 8 < 5
What now: If you need to improve on your press up work then make sure to include pushup work in every workout you do. Practice makes perfect, and push ups really are a good indication of upper body strength, they are a compound exercise which means they use multiple muscle groups to perform each repetition, ie multiple muscle groups need to be strong to perform the exercise.
Step Test
This will test your endurance
Equipment needed: 12 inch step or as close as you can get to this. The more varied the step height, the less accurate the results will be. You will also need a stop watch and a metronome which can be downloaded for free at www.metronomeonline.com
Aim: We want you to set the stop watch to time 3 minutes and set the metronome to 96 beats per minute. The goal is to step up on the bench and back down again in pace with the metronome. We want you to do this for 3 minutes non stop in a marching like manner suing the arms to drive the legs. Make sure your foot is fully planted on the step. Try and avoid just toe tapping the step. When the three minutes is up, stop and sit down on the bench and immediately record your heart rate. You can use a heart rate monitor, or have a friend count your pulse rate for 1 minute (use the neck or wrist)
Below are the results table published by the YMCA
For men:
18-25 26-35 36-45 46-55 56-65 65+
Excellent 50-76 51-76 49-76 56-82 60-77 59-81
Good 79-84 79-85 80-88 87-93 86-94 87-92
Above Average 88-93 88-94 92-88 95-101 97-100 94-102
Average 95-100 96-102 100-105 103-111 103-109 104-110
Below Average 102-107 104-110 108-113 113-119 111-117 114-118
Poor 111-119 114-121 116-124 121-126 119-128 121-126
Very Poor 124-157 126-161 130-163 131-159 131-154 130-151
For Women:
18-25 26-35 36-45 46-55 56-65 65+
Excellent 52-81 58-80 51-84 63-91 60-92 70-92
Good 85-93 85-92 89-96 95-101 97-103 96-101
Above Average 96-102 95-101 100-104 104-110 106-111 104-111
Average 104-110 104-110 107-112 113-118 113-118 116-121
Below Average 113-120 113-119 115-120 120-124 119-127 123-126
Poor 122-131 122-129 124-132 126-132 129-135 128-133
Very Poor 135-169 134-171 137-169 137-171 141-174 135-155
20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60+
Excellent > 54 > 44 > 39 > 34 > 29
Good 45-54 35-44 30-39 25-34 20-29
Average 35-44 24-34 20-29 15-24 10-19
Poor 20-34 15-24 12-19 8-14 5-9
Very Poor < 20 < 15 < 12 < 8 < 5
What now: If you need to improve on your press up work then make sure to include pushup work in every workout you do. Practice makes perfect, and push ups really are a good indication of upper body strength, they are a compound exercise which means they use multiple muscle groups to perform each repetition, ie multiple muscle groups need to be strong to perform the exercise.
Step Test
This will test your endurance
Equipment needed: 12 inch step or as close as you can get to this. The more varied the step height, the less accurate the results will be. You will also need a stop watch and a metronome which can be downloaded for free at www.metronomeonline.com
Aim: We want you to set the stop watch to time 3 minutes and set the metronome to 96 beats per minute. The goal is to step up on the bench and back down again in pace with the metronome. We want you to do this for 3 minutes non stop in a marching like manner suing the arms to drive the legs. Make sure your foot is fully planted on the step. Try and avoid just toe tapping the step. When the three minutes is up, stop and sit down on the bench and immediately record your heart rate. You can use a heart rate monitor, or have a friend count your pulse rate for 1 minute (use the neck or wrist)
Below are the results table published by the YMCA
For men:
18-25 26-35 36-45 46-55 56-65 65+
Excellent 50-76 51-76 49-76 56-82 60-77 59-81
Good 79-84 79-85 80-88 87-93 86-94 87-92
Above Average 88-93 88-94 92-88 95-101 97-100 94-102
Average 95-100 96-102 100-105 103-111 103-109 104-110
Below Average 102-107 104-110 108-113 113-119 111-117 114-118
Poor 111-119 114-121 116-124 121-126 119-128 121-126
Very Poor 124-157 126-161 130-163 131-159 131-154 130-151
For Women:
18-25 26-35 36-45 46-55 56-65 65+
Excellent 52-81 58-80 51-84 63-91 60-92 70-92
Good 85-93 85-92 89-96 95-101 97-103 96-101
Above Average 96-102 95-101 100-104 104-110 106-111 104-111
Average 104-110 104-110 107-112 113-118 113-118 116-121
Below Average 113-120 113-119 115-120 120-124 119-127 123-126
Poor 122-131 122-129 124-132 126-132 129-135 128-133
Very Poor 135-169 134-171 137-169 137-171 141-174 135-155
Do not be upset if you did not get the results that you wanted. Start working on your cardiovascular fitness by going outside for some brisk walks, or if you feel ready then start jogging taking it nice and easy to begin with.
The Plank Test:
The Plank test will give you a good indication of core strength. The aim of this test is to hold the plank position for 2 minutes. Make sure your hips do not start sagging. If they do then the test is over. If you can hold the plank for 2 minutes then you are deemed to have good core strength. The core muscles help to support the back, and if during this exercise you feel discomfort in your lower back, then this may be due to weak core muscles. If you can hold the plank for 1 minute then this is not bad at all and will give you a good foundation to progress your training. Include core exercises as part of your weekly workouts and try to vary the type of exercise you do in your training.
Body Weight Squat test
The goal of this test is to keep going until you can no longer maintain perfect technique.
When squatting make sure your feet are shoulder width apart. You can turn the feet outwards slightly and the goal is to lean back into the squat keeping the knees over the toes. Go down to a position where your thighs are parallel with the floor. As you drive up from the squat make sure you drive up through the heels of your feet, and tense your Glutes / bottom muscles. Make sure you control the movement throughout the entire exercise and engage your core muscles throughout.
Reps
50 plus Excellent
30–49 Good
16–29 Average
15 or fewer Poor
To improve you should focus on lunge work and squat work with light weights. Try and do 15 - 20 repetitions of each exercise to target muscular endurance. You can do more than 20 reps if you want.
When squatting make sure your feet are shoulder width apart. You can turn the feet outwards slightly and the goal is to lean back into the squat keeping the knees over the toes. Go down to a position where your thighs are parallel with the floor. As you drive up from the squat make sure you drive up through the heels of your feet, and tense your Glutes / bottom muscles. Make sure you control the movement throughout the entire exercise and engage your core muscles throughout.
Reps
50 plus Excellent
30–49 Good
16–29 Average
15 or fewer Poor
To improve you should focus on lunge work and squat work with light weights. Try and do 15 - 20 repetitions of each exercise to target muscular endurance. You can do more than 20 reps if you want.
