How Fit Are YOU?

Regardless of your ultimate end-goal with fitness, it's important to take a comprehensive approach to training. So in addition to improving your cardiovascular endurance and training each individual muscle group, it's important to pay attention to areas like flexibility, balance, and mobility. To help you access your current strengths and weaknesses, here are seven exercises that will help you determine your overall level of fitness.

Core Strength

Test It: Plank - Get in plank position on your elbows. Your body should form a straight line from your head to your ankles. Once in position, time how long you can maintain it with perfect form (don't let your hips hike up).
Score:
Great - You can hold the position for two minutes without breaking perfect form
Good - You can hold the position for 90 seconds without breaking perfect form
Fair - You can hold this position for 60 seconds

Upper-Body Strength

Test It: Push-Ups - Complete as many standard push-ups as possible, maintaining good form (don't let your back sag).
Score:
Great -
female: 23 (age 20-29), 22 (age 30-39), 18 (age 40-49), 15 (age 50+)
male: 30 (age 20-29), 25 (age 30-39), 21 (age 40-49), 18 (age 50+)
Good -
female: 12-22 (age 20-29), 10-21 (age 30-39), 8-17 (age 40-49), 7-14 (age 50+)
male: 7-29 (age 20-29), 13-24 (age 30-39), 11-20 (age 40-49), 9-17 (age 50+)
Fair -
female: 11 (age 20-29), 9 (age 30-39), 7 (age 40-49), 6 (age 50+)
male: 16 (age 20-29), 12 (age 30-39), 10 (age 40-49), 8 (age 50+)

Lower-Body Strength

Test It: Squat Test - Squat down until your glutes graze the seat of a chair. Return to standing. Repeat as many times as possible, maintaining perfect form (knees behind toes).
Score:
Great -
female: 43 (age 20-29), 39 (age 30-39), 33 (age 40-49), 27 (age 50+)
male: 49 (age 20-29), 45 (age 30-39), 41 (age 40-49), 35 (age 50+)
Good -
female: 25-42 (age 20-29), 21-38 (age 30-39), 15-32 (age 40-49), 10-26 (age 50+)
male: 31-48 (age 20-29), 29-44 (age 30-39), 23-40 (age 40-49), 18-34 (age 50+)
Fair -
female: 24 (age 20-29), 20 (age 30-39), 14 (age 40-49), 9 (age 50+)
male: 30 (age 20-29), 28 (age 30-39), 22 (age 40-49), 17 (age 50+)

Flexibility

Test It: Reclining Hand-to-Big Toe Pose - Bend your left knee, and draw your thigh in. Loop a strap or belt around the arch of your left foot, and hold an end of the strap in each hand. Straighten the leg as much as possible while pressing your heel toward the ceiling. Walk your hands up the strap until elbows are straight. Gently bring your leg as close to your head as possible. Note the angle of the leg in respect to your grounded leg.
Score:
Great -
female: greater than 90 degrees with leg straight
male: greater than 45 degrees with leg straight
Good -
female: greater than 90 degrees with leg slightly bent
male: greater than 45 degrees with leg slightly bent
Fair -
female: 90 degrees or less
male: less than 45 degrees

Balance

Test It: Standing Stork - Place your right foot against your left leg. Start timing. Stop timing when your left foot moves or you lose your balance. Repeat on the other side. Average the times.
Score:
Great - greater than 50 seconds
Good - 26-49 seconds
Fair - 25 seconds or less

Speed

Test It: Lap Test - Go to a track and warm up with an easy 10-minute run. Then, using your watch to time yourself, run one lap (which is 400 meters or a quarter-mile) as quickly as possible. If a track isn't accessible, run a quarter-mile on a measured stretch of flat road.
Score:
Great -
female: less than 60 seconds
male: less than 55 seconds
Good -
female: 60-70 seconds
male: 55-65 seconds
Fair -
female: greater than 71 seconds
male: greater than 66 seconds

Endurance

Test It: Treadmill Tempo -
1) Set a one-percent incline. Warm up at an easy pace for 10 minutes.
2) Do a 30-minute tempo run at 85 percent of your maximum effort. This is a bit slower than your 10K race pace - an 8 on a scale of difficulty from 1-10.
3) Cool down for five minutes, and note the distance you covered during that 30-minute tempo run. (it might be easier for you to gauge that distance if you reset the treadmill after you warmup).
Score:
Great -
female: >4.6 miles (age 35 & under), >4.2 miles (35-50), >3.8 miles (50+)
male: >5.2 miles (age 35 & under), >4.8 miles (35-50), >4.0 miles (50+)
Good -
female: 4-4.5 miles (age 35 & under), 3.8-4.1 miles (35-50), 3.3-3.7 miles (50+)
male: 4.2-5.1 miles (age 35 & under), 3.9-4.7 miles (35-50), 3.5-4 miles (50+)
Fair -
female: <3.9 miles (age 35 & under), <3.7 miles (35-50), <3.2 miles (50+)
male: <4.1 miles (age 35 & under), <3.8 miles (35-50), <3.4 miles (50+)

Hopefully, you'll find these tests to be both challenging and rewarding. And regardless of your success, once complete you'll have a benchmark from which to build. Your next step is to set a goal and start training!

Via: Runner's World