Why is fitness testing important

Poor results can also help to boost motivation, which is surprising but true for many of those looking to improve their fitness. It provides an incentive to do better if a score for a certain test is lower than another. The individual can make the necessary changes to their programme and up their effort, by perhaps adding in a few extra sessions per month, and transform their fitness further! This shows how the benefits of fitness testing include a greater motivation to continue on an exercise programme, which therefore makes exercise more sustainable for those who undergo it.

As we mentioned earlier, one of the most well-known reasons for testing fitness outside of those that benefit the individual is to assess the fitness of potential employees.

They will test their candidates to determine whether they have the required level of fitness to fulfil their roles safely, and then continue to test them throughout their term of employment. This ensures the safety of those that they work with as well as their own safety, as they usually work within high-risk situations. In their study on the effectiveness of certain tests when it comes to the safe recruitment of Law Enforcement Officers, Jennifer Wooland Bond University et al concluded:.

This review found that push-up testing and the 1. This may be due to the fact that push-ups and the 1. It's clear here that aspiring officers or those looking to get into the British Armed Forces, etc. If they enlist the help of a fitness professional during this time, it seems as though they will have better chances of succeeding in their career assessment.

The truth is that there are endless possibilities when it comes to finding a test to measure a certain area of fitness. That being said, there are tests that are widely used across the health and fitness industry and supported by mounds of scientific research, so we would definitely suggest sticking to these as opposed to random tests that you may stumble upon online.

This testifies their accuracy, as well as providing you with plenty of data to compare your own results to. The more popular a certain fitness assessment method, the more recorded test results you will come across! To make your life easier, check out the graphic below for a list of the different components that can be tested:. Cardiovascular endurance testing calculates how effectively your heart and lungs work together during long-duration exercise to supply your body with the energy and oxygen that it needs to continue.

It relates directly to the health of your cardiorespiratory system, and is probably one of the most important reasons for testing fitness when it comes to identifying any weaknesses in your overall fitness levels. Testing muscular endurance is a great way of assessing how effective your current fitness programme is. Check out our list of the Top Push-Up Bars if you're planning on training endurance; they're incredbily helpful if you find that your wrists fatigue quickly during regular push-ups!

While endurance is a literal measure of how long your muscles can endure physical exercise before they fatigue, strength is more about the impact that your muscles can exert on a one-time basis. Muscular strength testing provides the individual with an insight into how effective their current training programme is for fine-tuning the strength of individual muscle groups, and therefore helps them to identify any areas that may need more intervention than others.

You will need to perform a few different tests on separate muscle groups to get the most accurate results. This involves exactly what you would imagine; a test of the maximum amount of weight that you can lift with a certain muscle group for only one rep. Working this out is pretty simple, and looks something like this:. To give an example, if you benched 20kg for 8 reps before your muscles fatigued, then your personalised 1RM equation for this muscle group would be:. If we round Take a look at the 9 best adjustable dumbbells available on the market if you want to train your muscular strength at home.

Increasing your ROM and overall flexibility is incredibly beneficial, as it will mean that your body can withstand greater physical strain, and be less likely to sustain injuries. It will also help you to improve your posture, and rid your body of any muscle imbalances which also makes it less likely for you to get injured.

Our last health-related area of fitness to discuss in our guide to the different types of fitness testing is body composition. Not only is it incredibly important to target this in every exercise programme due to the poor health implications of carrying large amounts of excess body fat, but it happens to one of the central fitness goals for most people embarking upon a new fitness journey.

Fat-free mass includes bones, muscles, and organs. While body composition testing can be done at home with a pair of skinfold callipers, it is a test that is accurately completed with the help of a fitness professional, and is more likely to be correct if carried out this way. Power relates to the ability to utilise maximum force at the fastest possible speed. It does link to speed and strength, but can definitely be viewed alone. Those looking to improve their performance in sports such as football, rugby, basketball, etc.

Even if an individual has no interest in sports, they can see a number of health benefits from training power, such as improved cardiovascular health, endurance, strength, and overall body composition from the fat-burning properties of the exercise. It would be more productive to complete a 40m cycling sprint and track and monitor your progress this way!

Just like power, training speed can boost metabolic rate meaning that more calories are burned during the sessions , and improve cardiovascular health amongst other things. Get a Baseline — The initial fitness testing session can give you an idea of where your fitness levels are at the start of a program, so that future testing can be compared to this and any changes can be noted. Compare Results to Others — By comparing results to others such as successful athletes in your sport or your classmates, you can see the areas which need improvement, and the fitness program can be modified accordingly.

Identify Weaknesses and Strengths — You can determine your strengths and weaknesses by comparing fitness test results to other athletes in the same training group, the same sport, or in a similar population group.

Any comments, suggestions or corrections? Please let us know. Search This Site. Any time a personal trainer has a new client, they should first do a static health test, which covers such things as:. Cardiovascular tests are carried out using CV equipment in the gym, such as a treadmill, static bike, rower or cross trainer. They include the Cooper minute run test, where the client reaches a speed and intensity that they feel comfortable with and the personal trainer measures the distance that the client covers in 12 minutes.

If a client is unfit and new to training, this could be replaced with a shorter test or a timed walking test. Alternatively, the fitness instructor could set the machine to a particular distance and measure how long it takes the client to reach that distance.