Testing your fitness

What are the most common fitness tests?

There are plenty of different fitness tests out there, depending on what type of fitness you are looking to monitor. For example you can test your endurance with a good old fashioned bleep test, your strength with a one rep max, see how mobile you are with a sit and reach test or your explosive power with a vertical jump. These would be the most common tests and have been used since the 80’s!

How often should you test your fitness?

You have to be careful not to be too keen and test yourself all the time. Testing too regularly can be demotivating, especially if the results don’t come as quickly as you would like, some improvements can take time to be achieved. On the flip side if you leave it too long you might not be doing the correct training to improve your results and therefore waste time. Once a month is a good idea to test yourself as it gives you time make improvements but not too long that you plateau and head in the wrong direction.

Are fitness tests accurate ways of tracking progress?

You can’t manage what you can’t measure. By testing your performance you are able to change your training accordingly. If the tests are done in the same way consistently and measured the same way you will be able to accurately track your progress.

How can someone record/track their progress?

Smart watches are a great way to track your fitness and your progress. You can track your distance, pace, calories, average heart rate, cadence and even you aerobic/anaerobic threshold. There are simpler ways like writing down your distance from your mobile device when running, log your workouts, exercises and how heavy you lifted.