How Fit are You..Assess Aerobic Fitness (Part I)

Do you know how fit are you? Do you really aware of your potentials. Knowing the essentials can help you set pragmatic fitness goals, monitor your progress and maintain your motivation.

• Based on guidelines provided by the President's Challenge, a program designed by the President's Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition,fitness of an individual is assessed in four key areas — 

• Aerobic fitness-the capability of your heart and lungs to distribute blood to muscles
• Muscular fitness- whether you are sturdy enough to do regular activities easily.
• Flexibility-ability to move your joints through their complete range of movement.
• Body composition-whether you have excessive body fat, especially around the waist.

To do your Assessment, you'll need:

• A watch with  seconds or a stopwatch
• A measuring tape
• A yardstick
• Heavy-duty tape
• Someone to assist you with the flexibility test
• Notebook :  to record your scores as you complete each part of the assessment.

 Aerobic Fitness

• Aerobic fitness is basically one’s cardiovascular fitness. It is the ability to the heart, blood vessels, and lungs working together to transport oxygen to the muscles while exercising. 

• Good aerobic fitness is coupled with lesser risks of high blood pressure and coronary heart disease.

Measure Aerobic Fitness

• One Mile Walk Test

• To assess your aerobic fitness, you have to take  brisk one-mile (1.6-kilometer) walk. You can do it anywhere — on  track or on a treadmill. 

• Word of caution: Do Not take this test until you are routinely walking for 15 to 20 minutes several times per week.

• Radial artery pulse

• Place your index and middle fingers between the bone and the tendon over your radial artery, which is located on the thumb side of your wrist. 

• Resting Heart Rate.

• When you feel your pulse, look at your watch and count the number of beats in 10 seconds. Multiply this number by 6 to get your heart rate per minute, this is called Resting heart rate.

• Your Resting heart rate is often a good determination as to how fit you are, as well as indicating if you're either over training or unwell (Below is the table for the same).

• Post Exercise HR

• After you've recorded your pulse, note the time on your watch and do mild exercise in the form of walking one mile (1.6 kilometers). 

• After you complete the walk, check your watch and record the time it took you to finish — in minutes and seconds — in your notebook or journal. Then check and record your pulse once more.

This increase in heart rate after brisk walk is also an indicator of your Aerobic fitness....!!

                    

			MEN
AGE	18 -25	26 -35	36 -45	46 - 55	56 -65	65+
ATHLETE	49-55	49-54	50-56	50-57	51-56	50-55
EXCEL'T	56-61	55-61	57-62	58-63	57-61	56-61
GOOD	62-65	62-65	63-66	64-67	62-67	62-65
ABOVE AV	66-69	66-70	67-70	68-71	68-71	66-69
AVERAGE	70-73	71-74	71-75	72-76	72-75	70-73
BELOW AV	74-81	75-81	76-82	77-83	76-81	74-79
POOR	82+	82+	83+	84+	82+	80+

			WOMEN
AGE	18 -25	26 -35	36 -45	46 - 55	56 -65	65+
ATHLETE	54-60	54-59	54-59	54-60	54-59	54-59
EXCEL'T	61-65	60-64	60-64	61-65	60-64	60-64
GOOD	66-69	65-68	65-69	66-69	65-68	65-68
ABOVE AV	70-73	69-72	70-73	70-73	69-73	69-72
AVERAGE	74-78	73-76	74-78	74-77	74-77	73-76
BELOW AV	79-84	77-82	79-84	78-83	78-83	77-84
POOR	85+	83+	85+	84+	84+	84+

These are the resting heart rate data..