6 days ago
4 Fitness Tests Trainers Swear By
Whether you are new to fitness or looking to break an exercise plateau, you need to test yourself occasionally.
Evaluating your base line fitness might tell you that your right leg is stronger than your left, for example, or that your core is weaker than you thought, allowing you to tailor your workouts and improve.
Hiring a trainer to do a full assessment of your fitness is the best way to create a fully personalized plan. But there are some effective tests you can do on your own to get an idea of your strengths and weaknesses.
There are hundreds of fitness tests available on the internet — to find the ones that are worthwhile, we asked trainers and exercise experts to pick four tried-and-tested self-assessments for strength, balance and cardiovascular fitness.
'No test is the best test, but these oldies are goodies,' said Mark Murphy, a sports physical therapist at Mass General Brigham's Center for Sports Performance Research in Foxborough, Mass.
These tests aren't meant to be pass-fail, Mr. Murphy added. You can compare your scores against data for your gender and age, but it's more important to compete with yourself, he said. 'Think of your scores as benchmarks for building better fitness.'
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