So you think you’re pretty fit, huh? These suggestions should reveal if you’re right, or if you’ve neglected one of the three core areas of fitness: strength, flexibility, and cardio.
Maybe you’ve trained independently for years without a basis for comparison, or you could be a hobbyist lifter, dancer, or runner wondering how your fitness compares outside your comfort zone. Regardless, you’ll likely find these challenges useful.
STRENGTH: Are you as powerful as you think?
To find out, try moving at least one workout per week to the triple overload principle.
Instead of focusing only on the weight lifted and repetitions performed, which is a double overload system, also focus on maximizing the length of time for which the muscle remains contracted. To do this you’ll have to slow way down, taking about ten seconds to complete each repetition, while ensuring you never allow the targeted muscles to relax during the set. Perform as many repetitions as you can, but increase the weight if you’re able to do more than 15 reps, or over 2.5 minutes of sustained contraction. Using this system, you should only need to perform one set per exercise!
If performed with perfect form, the triple overload system should create a muscle burn like nothing else. This technique is extremely challenging and a great test of overall strength.
FLEXIBILITY: Are you as limber as you think?
Shoulders: Hold a ruler in one fist, making note of the thumb position on the ruler, and reach that arm behind your head and down your back as far as you can without causing pain. Next reach up your back with the opposite hand and grasp the ruler as high up as you can with the other fist. Calculate the distance in inches between your two thumbs when the ruler was transferred.
Scoring: A great score is no more than four inches, ideally less!
Hamstrings: Lie flat on your back with one leg completely stretched out and the upper half of the other leg pointing to the ceiling. Now lift the lower half of the raised leg as high as possible without moving the extended leg.
Scoring: A good outcome is to straighten the lifted leg completely.
Calves: Place the soles of both feet flat against a wall and sit up straight. Keeping your heels on wall, pull your toes toward your knees. Estimate the distance between the balls of your feet and the wall, or have a partner measure.
Scoring: An excellent score is three inches away or more.
CARDIO: Are you as fit as you think?
Have you been running mainly on treadmills? Try heading to the local running track for a literal change of pace with outdoor interval training. Once you’ve warmed up, try running one 100m straightaway at a full-out sprint, then jogging the next 300m before sprinting again, without ever stopping or walking for at least three laps. If that becomes easy, try sprinting both straight lengths and jogging the curves for at least two laps.
Want another test? Try running the 400m dash in 60 seconds flat.
REMEMBER: While not necessarily supreme athletes, those who pass these challenges surely possess above average fitness. If you’re new to exercise or are significantly de-conditioned, this may be a better place to begin: Fitness Reality Check
If you feel you could benefit from assistance to help you meet or exceed your fitness goals, consider booking a session with a personal trainer today.
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Shaun Karp is a certified personal trainer and owner of Karp Personal Training in Vancouver, B.C. For further information call (604) 420-7800 or visit their web site www.karpfitness.com.