Aerobic Fitness Testing - Test your Endurance levels for Heart Training
Aerobic Fitness Testing helps you evaluate how strong your heart really is. A stronger heart helps you burn more calories, helps pump blood efficiently and give you abundance of energy all day long as you are less tired.
Aerobic Capacity or Aerobic Power
Aerobic Capacity or Aerobic Power is defined as the maximum heart rate at which a person can produce energy through oxidation {aerobic i.e. oxygen providing capacity of your lungs and heart }.
Why you need to test your aerobic limits?
Were you panting and gone out-of-breathe trying to catch a bus or walking the stairs? Then your aerobic capacity is low and your heart is in danger. Testing your aerobic limits will give you an excellent idea about your heart functioning.
With proper aerobic training you can train your heart to deliver more blood with less effort. Talk about a heart friendly exercise program ha!
By testing you aerobic limits prior to starting an exercise program and then at regular intervals, say every 4 weeks, you will be able to evaluate your progress and make training changes for consistent improvements.
Aerobic Fitness Testing -Test your Heart Now!
I will explain 2 simple tests for testing your aerobic conditioning. Both these tests are very reliable and easy.
First is the Walk test and second is the Run or Jog test. Start wherever you are comfortable. You will be doing these tests before starting your Aerobic Exercise Program and periodically redo them to see how well you are doing.
One Mile Walk Test
This is very simple test and perfect for people who have not trained since months {what years? } or have never trained.
Requirements - A watch that measures time in seconds and a measured one mile walking route. Make sure this route is free from traffic, clean and without many turns. Also this route will serve as your standard using which you measure you future records.
You can use a little help from your training partner of friend for you test.
Warm up for 3 minutes using Warm Up Exercises before your Walk Test. Also make sure you know exactly where the finish point is.
Now start the stopwatch and walk as fast as you can and complete the one mile. Make a note of the time in seconds for your one mile walk. Write it down in your Weight Training Journal.
At the end of your walk measure your heart rate. Simply count for 6 seconds and multiply it by 10 to get your Exercise Heart Rate in beats per minute.
One Mile Run Test
Warm up for 3 minutes using Warm Up Exercises before your Run Test.
This is done exactly as the walk run except that you run and complete the test. Make sure you note the time taken and calculate your Exercise Heart Rate.
How do you compare
A trained athlete might take less than 8 minutes to complete one mile yet sedentary people might take more than 15 minutes. It does not matter for you right now as improvement over your starting value is what we are after. So don't be disappointed as you will improve with time and training.
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