Top 10 10 Methods to Gauge Your Fitness
It may be difficult to measure your level of fitness if you want to understand how healthy you're, or if you are starting a fresh workout regimen. Everyone's level of fitness is different, and so are personally predicated on factors in several different categories including aerobic fitness, muscular fitness, flexibility and body composition. Fitness is a lot more than how fast or long it is possible to run, just how much weight you can lift or what the body looks like in a swimwear. In order to know how healthy and fit your system is, try assessing your level of fitness with these tests:
- Resting HEARTRATE (RHR)- Your resting heart rate could be a good, simple indication of one's overall fitness level. The amount of times your heart beats each minute, asses your aerobic fitness capacity. When your body is at rest and relaxed, count the amount of heart beats you feel in a 60 second time period. A lesser RHR corresponds to a stronger heart and higher aerobic fitness level.
- 1 Mile Run (or brisk walk)- This test indicates the level your cardiovascular fitness reaches. Utilizing a flat and measurable route, observe 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're in a good fitness position; should you choose, you need to work on improving your cardiovascular fitness. Ideally, you should 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 will be a good indicator of upper body strength and endurance levels. There are numerous some people that have trouble performing even one proper push-up. This exercise involves the shoulders, chest, triceps, abdominals and some legs, and are the best way to asses your chest muscles fitness. See how many that you can do in row; women should shoot for 12 and men should aim for 20.
- Wall Sit- This exercise is used to asses lower torso and leg strength and endurance. "Sitting" within an invisible chair with your back against a wall so long as possible, is an excellent way to gauge your lower body fitness, along with the endurance in your leg muscles. Together with your knees at a right angle, breathe freely while seeing just how long you can contain the position.
- Flexibility- Fitness can be a way of measuring how flexible your body is. To asses flexibility, sit on the floor together with your legs stretched out, and try to reach and touch your toes. If you can't touch your toes this does not mean you are not fit, many people can't reach this far. However, you definitely need to focus on this section of fitness if you can't reach much beyond your knees. Flexibility is important to overall health, so focus on stretching each day to improve flexibility and fitness.
- Balance- Like flexibility, balance can be a key point in good fitness. A standard healthy body relies heavily on being well balanced, and the risk or injury and broken bones from falls increases drastically with age. To asses your fitness level in this area, try standing on one foot with your arms at your sides for a period of one minute. In the event that you feel as if you may fall, stand close to a wall, table or chair. Focus on improving fitness levels in balance, try practicing exercises that focus on and promote good balance like yoga or Pilates.
- Plank- That is a great exercise to asses your core strength and stability. Your fitness level relies on those deep, stabilizing muscles which are in the trunk of one's body. Your core strength and fitness can be assessed by practicing holding the plank position for as long as you can. Proper planks are held with the forearms on to 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.
- Vertical Jump- As kids, this section of our fitness level was certainly up to par, and used often. However, once you get older this can be a much looked over section of overall health that may indicate the power exertion your system possesses plus the power in your muscle fibers. See how high it is possible to jump with markings on a wall or a 2-foot tall box.
- Waist to Hip Ratio- This fitness test is used to asses body fat distribution. The waist to hip ratio indicates the proportion of fats stored around the waist compared to hip girth. Those who hold more weight in their midsection as stomach fat, will experience health problems like heart disease and diabetes, in addition to a lower fitness level. To calculate your waist to hip ratio, measure the circumference of the widest section of your hips, and smallest section of your waist. Then divide the waist measurement by the measurement of one's hips. For Strength and Conditioning Coach , a healthy ratio is less than .8, and for men it's less than .9.
- Burpees- This full body exercise is an excellent solution to indicate your fitness level when you can do a good few in a row. A burpee is an intense workout that challenges your muscular fitness, cardiovascular fitness, endurance and body power. Perform as much as possible in a single minute to really ensure that you push your level of fitness.