How fit are you? Find out right now
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There are at least three important reasons for finding out how fit you are:
- For measurement of progress
- For making programs based on your fitness level
- To compare yourself with others
Measurements of progress is, as mentioned several times earlier, very important as a motivational tool and for making you stick to a goal. You only need to set a new goal, find a method that can measure your progress and stick with that method until your goal is met. When you are done you basically need to switch both goals and methods for measuring the progress.
When you have decided to start doing some kind of cardio fitness, for example exercise bikes fitness, you want to set a target heart rate to lose weight or get better stamina. Many programs are designed around using your oxygen uptake for setting your target heart rate. This was mentioned in my previous article “Find Your Fat Burning Sweet Spot”
Oxygen uptake is a good indicator of your current fitness level. The most common way of measuring your oxygen uptake is to put you on a treadmill, strap on a oxygen measurement mask and have you run. The equipment will measure your oxygen uptake in VO2 max, a measurement of how quick your body can use the oxygen from the air.
Having a lab at home would be very practical, but not very economic. You probably would need to share off half of your living room just to get space for a VO2 lab, too. Not to mention the medic that you would need to have an extra bed room for in order to monitor your health.
A more practical way of doing oxygen uptake takes at home is doing a simple step test. One such test is test is the Åstrand step test. Here is what you need to do:
- Find a suitable box/chair etc that have the height of 40cm if you are male, and 33cm if you are female.
- Bring a stop watch and (if available) a heart rate monitor. The HR monitor is not necessary.
- Try stepping up and down the box for some times to find your balance.
- Start stepping up and down the box at a pace of 1 second up, 1 second down.
- Repete the stepping for a total time of 5 minutes and finish stepping.
- Measure your heart rate within 30 seconds after finishing the stepping. You can do this by pressing your index and middle finger lightly to your neck artery and count the heart beats for 30 seconds. Multiply that number by 2 to find your heart rate. If using a heart rate monitor you get the result out directly.
- Insert the data that you got into the calculator below to find your current VO2 max and fitness level.
You now have no excuse for not measuring your fitness level on a regular basis. So bring your stop watch now and start stepping!
Sources:
The Åstrand-Ryhming test/method under the magnifying glass
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