You’re probably aware of your weight, body fat percentage and overall health. But do you know your fitness level? Accurately gauging how fit you actually are doesn’t require going to a lab and have electric nodes attached to your body to get a thorough analysis. Here are five ways effective ways to measure your fitness level right away:
1. Body Composition
One of the most important ways of measuring your fitness level is to measure your true body fat percentage. It will not only help you get motivated to get fit but also give you insights into how healthy you actually are.
What you simply need is a skin fold caliper, which pinches your skin to measure thickness. It pinches your skin on seven different locations to get an accurate measurement of your body composition. Type these measurements here, which is a body composition calculator fitness enthusiasts commonly use.
2. Cardiovascular Capacity
If you have seen professional athletes running on treadmills wearing an oxygen mask what you have really seen is a lab test to measure VO2max or in other words, maximum lung capacity.
VO2max is a measurement of how much oxygen you can take in during a brief but reasonably strenuous cardiovascular workout. It can be performed on your own in just 12 minutes. All you need to do is run as fast as possible and measure the distance you’ve covered in 12 minutes. Once you do that, you can have a peek at your VO2max from this online calculator.
Alternatively, you can also measure your fitness level, particularly your cardiovascular health, by trying to hold a straight conversation with someone while running at a steady pace. Even after a few minutes, if you find yourself not having to pant or gasp for oxygen, you’re one of the fit ones!
3. One Rep Max
This is one of the easiest ways to measure what fitness level you have triumphed during all those years of blood, sweat and tears while lifting weights. For expert-level fitness buffs who have a long history of weightlifting, it is recommended that you try to lift as much weight as possible for a single rep, on any compound exercise such as the squat, deadlift or bench press.
However, if you are novice at lifting weights, you should choose a weight that allows you to nail at least 8 to 10 reps. Do them explosively with good form. If you’re ready to go again in a minute or less, your fitness level is considered fairly good. Here is a calculator that can also help.
4. Muscle Endurance
There are two popular methods to measure your muscle endurance; how many pushups you can rep out in 60 seconds and how long you can hold a plank. Either way, the higher (or longer) your numbers, the stronger your muscles are.
You can effectively try the same experiment with chin ups, though don’t heave your body weight up or use your legs to assist in the pulls. Ensure that you have a partner with you who can examine how well you are performing in these tests. Your form should be sharp throughout and there should be zero cheating in order to truly test your limits.
5. Flexibility
Flexibility is considered an essential part in preventing muscles from injury and also determine your fitness level. Measuring how flexible your are is, in fact, very easy. What you have to do is do a sit and reach test, which you probably know from your elementary school gymnasium. If you don’t, then here is how you do it.
There you have it: five tried-and-true ways to measure your fitness level. If you’re already getting the right numbers, fantastic! If not, your work is all cut out in the quest for optimal fitness. So search for entraîneur personnel kinésiologue Montreal today.