Assessing Your Fitness Level

People are getting more conscious with their fitness. This is the reason why more people are getting into exercise. Getting physically active is the most important thing to battle the daily stress that life brings. However, it is also important to assess your fitness level before you get into physical exercise.

If you regularly don your cycling jersey and ride your bike at least an hour a day, chances are you are in great physical shape. However, not everyone who exercises regularly are in peak form. That is why it is important that you go through clinical testing periodically and get yourself assessed.

Clinical tests will check the level of fitness you are in. If you are not in great physical shape, there will be suggestions given to you to address this. This should serve as a motivational factor for those who want to become more fit. Many people use this as their basis for future exercises.

To some, it also serves as a great starting point in figuring out what health program to pursue. Others look at it as an opportunity to improve their overall health. From this point, they get an idea of which path they are going to take.

People look at it to advance from the stage they are in. This means that they have to consider all the three aspects of fitness. These are flexibility, strength and cardio durability.

For cardio durability, the best fitness evaluation that people go through is a two mile run. This is done by the United States military on new cadets. This includes ten minutes warm up and a full-on jog for that distance. Military servicemen should make the distance in 17 minutes and 30 seconds. For non military servicemen, a time a little higher than that is totally acceptable.

However, the military time can be used as a standard. Through regular practice, this can be achieved eventually. Then and only then can you declare yourself totally fit. You can insert weight training workouts in between to help develop muscle strength needed to do the test.

When it comes to strength, the overhead squat is commonly used as the standard test. 5 or less means you are not strong enough. More than five means you are strong.

Flexibility is an important aspect of fitness. You can assess your flexibility by lying on the floor and raising your knee toward your chest. Straighten your legs and lift it up one at a time. If you are able to reach 80 degrees, you have very good flexibility.