fitness

5 Easy DIY Ways to Perform a Fitness Test at Home

Did you know that you can actually conduct your own fitness examination all by yourself at home? Absolutely! Staying fit always should be non-negotiable, hence, it’s important we ensure that we keep fit, as well as do a frequent check to ensure that we are healthy. Even if you do not score well in these tests at the first trial, there is definitely room for improvement. You just need to keep up with the exercises, make it a routine and stick to what works best for you, without putting too much pressure on yourself.

A fitness test also known as a fitness examination is a series of exercises that helps you evaluate your overall health and physical fitness status. It encapsulates measures of body composition, cardiovascular fitness, flexibility, muscular strength and endurance, mobility, balance, and body fat distribution.

The fitness test is so crucial as it helps to measure your ability as it relates to your strength, flexibility, and your fitness level; it helps you learn how your movement patterns contribute to your exercise routines and daily life, it further helps develop personal awareness of your physical life, establishes attainable goals and maintain accountability, boosts self-awareness and self-confidence in any physical fitness setting, helps you develop an efficient fitness routine, keeps you fit, identifies things that could potentially cause injury to you while exercising and avoid them, identifies your strength(s) and weakness(es), and monitors fitness progress.

Here are five do-it-yourself ways to carry out a physical fitness test at home;

Cardiovascular Fitness Test

A strong cardiovascular system allows your heart to pump more blood with every beat. Assessing your cardio-vascular fitness level, in most cases requires a professional in that field, however, there are also do-it-yourself ways to go about this. Firstly, you should ensure you are not on any medication nor caffeine as this may affect the heartbeat rate. Then, you get a stopwatch or timer and set at three minutes, then proceed to set your metronome (you could download metronome applications on the Play or Appstore) to 96 beats per minute (make sure it is loud enough to hear each heartbeat), step on and off a 12-inch tall step to the rhythm of the metronome beat.

You are not allowed to stop to catch your breath while doing this test and maintain a consistent pace. As soon as the stopwatch or timer clocks three minutes and it stops, stop the procedure as well and sit uprightly and then record the heart rate for sixty seconds, counting each beat. Use the age-adjustment evaluation table to assess your result. On this table on the app, you’ll see ratings categorized as Excellent, Good, Above Average, Below Average, Poor, and Very Poor. An excellent, good, above average remark, means you did well. However, if you did not get any of these, do not be in despair, you can still do better next time by working on your fitness levels.

Neck Flexibility

 You can also test the flexibility of your neck by sitting upright, looking straight ahead, and get someone to stand right behind you as you rotate your head to the right, and then ask the person to tell you how much detail of your face they can see. Then, slowly return your head to the centre position and rotate to the left and then ask the person again, how much of your profile they can view. If you discover that you have a flexible range of motion in one direction than the other, then you should ensure you get involved in more flexible routines.

Core Stability

Core stability has to do with the strength and function of the deep stabilizing muscles of the trunk. If your core stability is poor, then you will find it difficult to hold the ‘plank’ position. However, if you do not encounter difficulty in doing so, then your core stability is high. To improve stability, you should frequently practice the plank movement exercises.

Body Fat Distribution

To evaluate your body fat distribution, you do the waist-to-hip ratio. By so doing, you can compare the total amount of fats stored around the waist with those on the hips. You can do this by taking a tape to measure the circumference of your hips at the widest part of your buttocks and then measure the circumference of your waist at the narrowest point. To get the waist-to-hip ratio, you divide your waist measurement by your hip measurement.

Leg Strength

To take the leg strength and endurance test, you should first get a wall space and then lean your back against it, moving your feet forward. Then, slide your back down the wall to the point that your hip and knee joints are at the right angle, this should give you a look that you are sitting on an invisible chair. Then, begin your timer. Hold the ‘invisible chair’ sitting position as long as you can, while breathing freely.

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A woman doing a leg fitness exercise at home. Photo credit: pexels.com

These simple DIY fitness examinations can be done at home, and they do not require much time. Go on this fitness journey today, trust me, you got this!

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