Your At Home Fitness Assessment!

Test your fitness on your own!

How do you know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been? This is a wonderful quote that can be applied to many areas of our lives, especially fitness. One of the most helpful strategies I learned from being certified as a personal trainer was to start every client with a fit test. See what you are capable of at the beginning, that way later on, it’ll be easier for you to see and experience the progress that you are making on your road to weight loss. Sometimes it may take longer than we anticipated to see our goal weight, the pounds don’t fall off as fast as we want them too. With a fit test, you can see progress in smaller doses!

Below you will find instructional videos for all the fit tests…so follow along!

A fitness test is a measurement of your strength and flexibility. This is a basic, at home fitness test with minimal equipment that you can do every 3 or 4 weeks (after working out religiously of course). Keep in mind that this is a fitness test designed for at home use. However, it can be done at the gym. If you take the test at the gym, grab a trainer and she can help you with the test. If you stay committed to exercising and eating clean you WILL see results!

If you have never done a workout before, or have been keeping up with Skinny Ms. challenges and daily workouts, now is a good time to start using a fit test to keep track of your progress! Make it a goal to do a fit test maybe the 1st of every month, or the 1st and 15th of every month and keep a record of your results.

We welcome you to post your results in the comments section below.

Here’s the breakdown!

Do all the fit tests (upper body, lower body, flexibility, core) all in one day with plenty of rest in between so it is a good measurement of your strength without being compromised. Also, make sure you do not do the fit test a day after an extreme workout or after a 5K race and make sure your body is fresh to increase it’s accuracy. It is, however, a good idea to warm up and stretch before these tests. All you need is a yoga mat, a measuring tape, a timer, and a chair! Don’t forget your water too!

Flexibility Test

Sit and Reach Test”

Sit on the floor upright with your legs stretched out in front of you. This test is actually performed without shoes. You want to have 12 inches between your feet, and have a measuring tape in between your legs with the 15” mark in line with your heels. Now place your hands on top of one another, reach to see what number you can reach to! You get three trials to do this and your score is the highest of the three and remember to date it! That is your flexibility test. Here is the chart for Sit and Reach Norms:

Age 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60+
Excellent >24 >23 >22 >21 >20
Good 22-23 21-22 20-21 19-20 18-19
Average 16-21 15-20 14-19 13-18 12-17
Fair 13-15 12-14 11-13 10-12 9-11
Poor <12 <11 <10 <9 <8


Upper Body Strength

“Push-up Test”

All women, no matter their fitness level, perform this push up test in a modified position. So you will be doing a push up on your knees with your toes touching the ground behind you. You want to make sure you inhale at the top of the push up and exhale as you go towards the floor. You want to try and get your face 3” from the ground, but if you cannot go that low at first, don’t worry! You will with time! This test is a maximum rep test and here is the chart specifically for women doing the test:

Age 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60+
Excellent >49 >40 >35 >30 >20
Good 34-48 25-39 20-34 15-29 5-19
Average 17-33 12-24 8-19 6-14 3-4
Fair 6-16 4-11 3-7 2-5 1-2
Poor <5 <3 <2 <1 <0

Trunk Muscle Strength

“Partial Curl Up”

This test was designed so that people with lower back problems wouldn’t feel the strain of a full sit up. You’re going to lay down face up on your yoga mat, with your knees at a 90° angle. A measuring tape will need to be taped to the floor with 1 cm starting at the tips of your fingers, and then tape it at 10 cm (like shown in video). You will curl up at a 30° angle and see what number you can curl to! Record and date! Here is that chart for standard values for trunk flexion:

Age 20-29 years 30-39 years 40-49 years 50-59 years 60+ years
Excellent 25 25 25 25 25
Very Good 18-24 19-24 19-24 19-24 17-24
Good 14-17 10-18 11-18 10-18 10-16
Fair 5-13 6-9 4-10 6-9 3-7
Needs Improvement 4 5 3 5 2

Lower Body Strength

“The Squat Test”

The squat is special exercise in that it hits almost every muscle in your lower body. Stand in front of a chair and squat down until your butt hits the chair and then return to standing position. Your knees should be at a 90° angle at the bottom of the squat. Feet should be shoulder width apart. This is a maximum test so keep squatting until you feel fatigued or feel your form starting to compromise.

The chart below is from Top End Sports: The Sport Science Resource website that is specifically for women doing the squat test. Just find your age and record how many squats you did and get stronger from there!

Age 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60+
Excellent >29 >26 >23 >20 >17
Good 27-29 24-26 21-23 18-20 15-17
Above Avg. 24-26 21-23 18-20 15-17 12-14
Average 21-23 18-20 15-17 12-14 9-11
Below Avg. 18-20 15-17 12-14 9-11 6-8
Poor 15-17 12-14 9-11 6-8 3-5

Flexibility test charts, push-up test charts, and partial curl up charts all came from The Aerobics and Fitness Association of America, and the textbook Personal Fitness Training: Theory & Practice. The squat test chart came from Top End Sports: The Sport Science Resource website.

We welcome you to post your results in the comments section below.

Exercise and health are matters that vary from person to person. Participants of the fit test should speak with their doctors about individual needs before starting any exercise program. This Web site is not intended as a substitute for the medical advice and supervision of your personal physician. Any application of the recommendations set forth in the following pages is at the viewer’s discretion and sole risk. See your physician before beginning any exercise program. This is especially important if your family has a history of heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, arthritis, obesity, cigarette smoking, or other health conditions. 

 

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SkinnyMs.

The SkinnyMs. team believes that all people, regardless of age, size, and fitness level, have the power to transform their lives — they just need the resources to do so. The SkinnyMs. method promotes healthy living through a combination of clean eating and regular exercise. We offer everything you need to be successful.

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7 Comments

  1. I regularly do exercise at my home due to keeping my fitness well and attractive and this is why here provided home fitness assessment is very very handy for me. Thanks

  2. I have been away from exercising since a while now and this has caused me gain a lot of weight.I would definitely like to give it a try.

  3. You make some good points there Skinny, it's so important to test clients fitness on a regular basis. Like they say… "if your'e not assessing your'e guessing!:

  4. I got "excellent" on all those things… I'm still not "done." (Mind you, I would've been "average" or "poor" 10 years ago. XD)

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