It may be difficult to measure your level of fitness if you want to understand how healthy you are, or in case you are starting a new workout regimen. Everyone's level of fitness is different, and are personally based on factors in several different categories including aerobic fitness, muscular fitness, flexibility and body composition. Fitness is more than how fast or long it is possible to run, how much weight you can lift or what your body looks like in a swimwear. If you need to understand how healthy and fit the body is, try assessing your level of fitness with these tests:
- Resting Heart Rate (RHR)- Your resting heart rate could be a good, simple indication of your overall fitness level. The quantity of times your heart beats for each minute, asses your aerobic fitness capacity. Whenever your body is at rest and relaxed, count the quantity of heart beats you feel in a 60 second time period. A lesser RHR corresponds to a stronger cardiovascular system and higher aerobic fitness level.
- 1 Mile Run (or brisk walk)- This test indicates the particular level your cardiovascular fitness reaches. Utilizing a flat and measurable route, see how long it takes you to complete 1 mile running, or if you have to, walking quickly. If you don't get winded or dizzy you are in a good fitness position; if you do, you need to focus on improving your cardiovascular fitness. Ideally, you have to be in a position to complete one mile in 9 minutes or less.
- Push Ups- Push ups certainly are a great exercise for overall fitness, and can be considered a good indicator of upper body strength and endurance levels. There are many some people that have trouble performing even one proper push-up. This exercise involves the shoulders, chest, triceps, abdominals plus some legs, and are the best way to asses your upper body fitness. See how many that you can do in row; women should shoot for 12 and men should shoot for 20.
- Wall Sit- This exercise can be used to asses lower torso and leg strength and endurance. "Sitting" within an invisible chair with your back up against a wall for as long as possible, is a wonderful way to gauge your lower body fitness, along with the endurance in your leg muscles. Together with your knees at the right angle, breathe freely while seeing how long you can hold the position.
- Flexibility- Fitness can be a measure of how flexible the body is. To asses flexibility, sit on the floor with your legs stretched out, and then try to reach and touch your toes. If you cannot touch your toes this will not mean you aren't fit, many people can't reach this far. However, you definitely need to work on this section of fitness if you can't reach much further than your knees. Flexibility is essential to overall health, so focus on stretching each day to boost flexibility and fitness.
- Balance- Like flexibility, balance can be a significant factor in good fitness. An overall healthy body relies heavily on being well balanced, and the chance or injury and broken bones from falls increases drastically with age. To asses your fitness level of this type, try sitting on one foot together with your arms at your sides for an interval of one minute. In the event that you feel just like you may fall, stand near a wall, table or chair. Work on improving fitness levels in balance, try practicing exercises that focus on and promote good balance like yoga or Pilates.
- Plank- This is usually a great exercise to asses your core strength and stability. Your level of fitness depends on those deep, stabilizing muscles which are in the trunk of your body. Your core strength and fitness can be assessed by practicing holding the plank position for as long as it is possible to. Proper planks are held with the forearms on the floor, toes curled under, and your back straight and parallel to the floor. Doing this exercise every day will increase core muscles and overall fitness.
- Extra resources - As kids, this section of our fitness level was certainly up to par, and used often. However, once you get older it is a much looked over section of overall health that may indicate the energy exertion your system possesses as well as the power in your muscle fibers. See how high you can jump with markings on a wall or a 2-foot tall box.
- Waist to Hip Ratio- This fitness test can be used to asses surplus fat distribution. The waist to hip ratio indicates the proportion of fats stored around the waist compared to hip girth. Those that hold more weight within their midsection as stomach fat, will experience health issues like cardiovascular disease and diabetes, in addition to a lower fitness level. To calculate your waist to hip ratio, gauge the circumference of the widest part of your hips, and smallest section of your waist. Then divide the waist measurement by the measurement of your hips. For women, a wholesome ratio is less than .8, and for men it's less than .9.
- Burpees- This full body exercise is a good solution to indicate your level of fitness when you can do even a few in a row. A burpee is an intense workout that challenges your muscular fitness, cardiovascular fitness, endurance and body power. Perform as many as possible in a single minute to really ensure that you push your level of fitness.