Thursday, October 08, 2009

Where is your fitness level?

You made your resolution to get in shape, you have even found an exercise program that you like, but where exactly do you start? One of the first things that you should do is to find out what your current fitness level is. This is important, because you want to make sure that you increase at a healthy rate to prevent injury. There are several ways to test your fitness level.

Upper Body Strength
A great way to test upper body strength is by using the push-up. Men should use the traditional military style push-up, while women can use the bent-knee position. To perform the test, do as many push-ups as you can, and count them as you are going. The average number of push-ups is listed below:


Women Men

Age 20-29: 17-33 Age 20-29: 35-44

Age 30-39: 12-24 Age 30-39: 24-34

Age 40-49: 8-19 Age 40-49: 20-29

Age 50-59: 6-14 Age 50-59: 15-24

Age 60+: 3-4 Age 60+: 10-19

Aerobic Activity
A great way to test your aerobic fitness level is the 12 minute test. To perform this test, warm up properly then cover as much distance as you can in 12 minutes. You may walk, run, or jog. When your 12 minutes are up, record your distance. Below are the average results for the number of miles covered:


Women Men

Age 20-29: 1.33 Age 20-29: 1.54

Age 30-39: 1.27 Age 30-39: 1.49

Age 40-49: 1.21 Age 40-49: 1.42

Age 50-59: 1.13 Age 50-59: 1.33

Age 60+: 1.07 Age 60+: 1.24

There are several other tests to check your fitness level, some of which can be performed by a trainer or physician. If your numbers are below the averages above, set your goal to the average and work towards that. When you have reached that goal, move to a higher one.

If you ever want to do a workout like P90x extreme home fitness, or the Shaun T Insanity Workout, then you should take their fit tests to see if can do them.

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