How do you know if you are healthy, or at least healthy enough? And how do you know if your health is improving?
You need to test yourself. Most of us haven’t taken a physical fitness assessment since the Presidential Physical Fitness Test in high school, but it’s good to check your progress every now and then.
“It’s so important to know if what you’re doing is working,” says Matt Fitzgerald, coach and author of Run Like a Pro (Even if You’re Slow), “so you can course-correct if what you’re doing isn’t.”
In fact, some experts say that testing yourself every three to six months can tell you more about your fitness than looking at your day-to-day performance, which often fluctuates widely. Fitness can be measured (and expressed) in many ways, but here are three tests that track strength and cardiovascular fitness that you can perform with little to no equipment.
One step ahead
• Dead Hangs for Grip Strength
• Cooper Test for Cardiovascular Fitness
Dead Hang
Improve your grip strength It’s associated with lower rates of heart disease, respiratory disease, cancer, and all-cause mortality. The correlation is so strong that a group of experts recently called it How to measure your overall healthblood pressure, heart rate, etc.
Grip strength is not only important for countless everyday tasks, like opening jars or carrying groceries, but it’s also a good indicator of overall muscle strength: “As you train and improve your muscle fitness, your grip strength should improve accordingly,” says Luke Baumgartner, an athletic testing expert at the University of Memphis.
All you need to perform this test is a pull-up bar and a stopwatch.
How to interpret the results
For men, zero to 30 seconds should be considered beginner level, said Matthias Sorensen, an exercise physiologist at the University of California, San Francisco’s Human Performance Center. 30 to 60 seconds is intermediate, and anything over 60 seconds is advanced. For women, zero to 20 seconds is beginner, up to 40 seconds is intermediate, and anything over 40 seconds is advanced, Sorensen said.
How to Improve Your Grip Strength
If you can’t hang from a chin-up bar or don’t have one handy, you can also test your grip strength with a walking farmer’s carry, holding a dumbbell or kettlebell in each hand. Start with what you can carry for 90 seconds, and increase the weight as you get stronger. For both men and women, carrying 70 percent of your body weight for 90 seconds is a very good score, says Sorensen.
Grip strength improves along with overall strength, so you can also train your grip through free weight training using dumbbells, barbells, and kettlebells.
Cooper Test
Aerobic exercise is Correlated with longevity and Lower levels of cardiovascular diseaseall-cause mortality and cancer.
The best way to measure this is to test your VO2 max, or the amount of oxygen your body uses while exercising, which typically involves going to a lab and exercising to the point of exhaustion.
But you can get an idea about it by myself In the Cooper test.
How to interpret the results
To get an estimate of your VO2 max, you need to do a little math. Multiply the distance in miles by 35.97 and subtract 11.29. That’s your estimate of your VO2 max. Online calculator and Compare the results For people in your age group.
For example, if you run 1.5 miles in 12 minutes, your VO2 max is about 43, which is an excellent score for a 65-year-old man, good for a 45-year-old, and average for a 25-year-old. For a woman, a score of 35 is excellent for a 65-year-old, good for a 45-year-old, and average for a 25-year-old.
Want to know more about your age group? Please check here.
How to Improve Your Cardiovascular Health
If you want to improve your score, Fitzgerald recommends slightly increasing what experts call your training volume — the number of times you train in a typical week. For example, jog four times a week instead of three, at a low intensity instead of a moderate one, and ramp up to short, high-intensity runs about once a week. More training time at a slower pace allows your body to fully recover between runs, improving your overall performance, he said.
That way, when you pick up the pace, “you’ll be able to push yourself harder and get more out of the session,” Fitzgerald said.
Plank
A strong core can help prevent injury, reduce back pain, and help you perform sports better. Test your core strength It’s a simple timed plank hold.
All you need is a flat surface to perform the test, although a yoga mat can make the test more comfortable.
How to interpret the results
Baumgartner said a good goal for men and women of all ages is the plank hold. At least 1 minuteAnything over 3 minutes is an exception.
If you can’t hold a plank for a minute, it’s time to start working on your core, says Baumgartner.
How to Improve Your Core Strength
To strengthen your core, start by figuring out your maximum hold time, then do two to three sets of plank holds a few times a week, increasing the time you hold each set by 5 to 10 percent until you can consistently hold the pose for a minute, says Sorensen. Then gradually increase the time to further build strength.
You could also incorporate squats, push-ups and bridges into your training two to three times a week to strengthen your core, or try activities like cycling, kayaking, dancing, ballet classes or swimming.
Whatever your results, Baumgartner says it’s important not to obsess over your score — the key is to continually test yourself and track your improvement.
“The results are not a judgment against you,” he said. “They’re a snapshot in time.”
Hilary Achauer is a freelance writer covering health and fitness.
