Health Fitness

Where is your fitness level?

You made your resolution to get in shape, you’ve even found an exercise program that you like, but where exactly do you start? One of the first things to do is find out what your current fitness level is. This is important, because you want to make sure you are increasing at a healthy rate to avoid injury. There are several ways to assess your fitness.

Upper body strength

A great way to test upper body strength is by bending. Men should use the traditional military-style pushup, while women can use the bent-kneed position. To test, do as many push-ups as you can and count them as you go. The average number of push-ups is listed below:


Women Men
Age 20-29: 17-33 Age 20-29: 35-44
Age 30-39: 12-24 Age 30-39: 24-34
Age 40-49: 8-19 Age 40-49: 20-29
Age 50-59: 6-14 Age 50-59: 15-24
Age 60+: 3-4 Age 60+: 10-19

Aerobic activity

A great way to assess your level of aerobic fitness is the 12-minute test. To perform this test, warm up properly and then cover as much distance as you can in 12 minutes. You can walk, run, or jog. When the 12 minutes are up, record your distance. Below are the average results for the number of miles driven:


Women Men
Age 20-29: 1.33 Age 20-29: 1.54
Age 30-39: 1.27 Age 30-39: 1.49
Age 40-49: 1.21 Age 40-49: 1.42
Age 50-59: 1.13 Age 50-59: 1.33
Age 60+: 1.07 Age 60+: 1.24

There are several other tests to check your fitness level, some of which can be performed by a coach or doctor. If your numbers are below the averages above, set your goal to the average and work towards it. When you’ve reached that goal, move on to a higher one.

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