Exercise testing, part three
Now that you have a view of your overall fitness, balance, and endurance from part one & part two of the exercise testing series, let’s take a look at tests for strength and flexibility.
Some of these exercise tests can be tried at home while others can be done with a coach or fitness professional.
Strength tests
Many strength tests may remind you of PE in high school. They are classics for a reason! You can do them yourself and track your progress as you get fit. Some require specialised equipment found at rehabilitation facilities and university research departments. Let’s start with the complicated ones and move into classics you can try at home.
Isokinetic strength tests
This is a battery of tests isolating body movements on a special apparatus that adjusts resistance so that movements are at a constant speed. This allows you to see the relationship between your speed, strength and muscle power. The equipment isolates almost any joint or muscle group and can show weaknesses, imbalances and detailed results and comparisons.
The test must be performed at a facility with the equipment, such as the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences in Jayanagar, Bangalore.
Handgrip strength test
Important for any activity that involves throwing, catching, or lifting, handgrip is measured with a portable device called a handgrip dynamometer. The test involves positioning the arm and wrist, then squeezing the handle of the device as strongly as possible for 3–10 seconds. The dynamometer measures grip strength in kg (or lb) and the results are compared to a chart. There is a significant difference in mens’ and womens’ results. For men an average grip strength is between 48–51 kg, while for women it is 26–29 kg.
1-RM tests
1-RM means 1 repetition at maximum weight. You perform it on weight machines at the local gym, starting with an achievable weight, taking a rest, then adding more weight and repeating the process until you can do only one rep. With a variety of machines available, many muscle groups can be tested. Doing this test requires good form on the machines, so get some experience with them before trying these tests. Like many of the strength tests, it measures your personal best so that you can mark improvement over time.
Classic tests
This set of strength tests you can do at home and record your personal best. There are comparison charts, but the only real comparison is your own progress. Strive to improve.
- Push-ups: upper body strength. Do as many “military style” pushups as you can; women are welcome to do a “knees bent” push-up instead. Keep going until you can’t lift yourself up. Check your results.
- Sit-ups: abdominal and core strength. With your knees bent and lower back always on the floor, lift your shoulders off the ground and touch your hands to your knees. Lower and repeat. Do as many as you can in 1 minute. Compare yourself to this results chart.
- Squats: lower body strength. Stand in front of a chair, and squat as if sitting in it, as soon as you touch the seat, stand up. Do as many as you can. See this guide to results.
- Vertical jump: explosive leg power. Find a tall wall with space to jump and land safely. Stand with one side to the wall and reach up. Mark this point with chalk. Step a little bit away from the wall and jump as high as you can, marking the wall at the top of the jump. The difference between the standing height and the jumping height is your score. Try as many times as you like — practice helps this one. There is a chart for scoring.
Topend Sports has produced a useful booklet, Home Fitness Tests, that includes ten tests you can do at home.
Flexibility tests
Flexibility tests check the range of motion in your joints. Some tests use equipment to measure angles, other tests are indirect and use linear measurements. Many can be self-administered; a few need a trainer or assistant to help.
Sit-and-reach test
This test was created in 1952 and is one of most widely used flexibility tests for hamstrings and the lower back. There are numerous variants of this one, including simply touching your toes, but sit-and-reach uses a box and ruled measure to give you a number.
You sit with your legs straight and feet against a box with an attached ruler, then bend forward from the hips and stretch your arms out to touch the ruler. Your score is the number on the ruler. The results vary from person-to-person due to arm length to leg length ratio, but you can track your own flexibility by regularly testing and recording your results.
This test is included in the Home Fitness Tests booklet. Here’s an example of one variation that uses a ready-made testing box.
Trunk rotation
This test measures trunk and shoulder flexibility and is easy to self-administer if you have a wall, chalk or tape, and a ruler.
Mark a spot on the wall. Stand arm’s length away from the wall, facing away from the wall, with your spin in line with the mark on the wall. Stretch your arms out in front of you and twist to the right to touch the wall behind you. It’s OK to rotate from shoulders to knees, but don’t move your feet. Measure the distance from the point where you fingertips touch to the mark on the wall. A touch before the mark (less rotation) is a negative score; after the mark is a positive score. Repeat on the left side and average the numbers to get your score.
Excellent: 20+ cm
Very good: 15 cm
Good: 10 cm
Fair: 5 cm
Poor: 0 cm
Groin flexibility test
Check the flexibility of your adductor muscles with an easy-to-do test that requires only a ruler. Adductors connect your hip to inside leg and for people who spend a lot of time at desks, adductors can be quite tight.
Sit on the ground with feet together at the soles and knees bent. Let your knees drop toward the ground as much as possible. Grab your ankles and gently pull your feet in as close to your groin as you can. Measure the distance from your heels to your groin.
Excellent: 5 cm
Very good: 10 cm
Good: 15 cm
Fair: 20 cm
Poor: 25+ cm
Shoulder rotation test
Shoulder rotation is important for throwing, swimming, and racquet sports. Although there is a more complex test using equipment, this test can also be performed at home with a broomstick or bath towel and a ruler.
Hold the stick in front of you with your hands palms down and wide apart. Lift the stick overhead and behind you. Repeat the test, bring the hands closer together each time until you can’t complete the movement. Your score is the measurement of the final completed movement.
This is another one where you’ll want to track your personal best over time. It’s hard to compare person-to-person due to arm length variations.
Back scratch test
Your upper arm and shoulder girdle flexibility get a test with this one. Again, you’ll need a ruler to record your score and it is helpful to have someone else do the measuring.
Reach your right arm up along your ear and bend your elbow so that your hand reaches down to your spine. Tuck your left arm along your side and bend your elbow up behind so that your left hand reaches up along the spine. Measure the overlap (positive score) or distance between them (negative score). Repeat on the other side. It is very likely that your right and left scores will be different.
There are myriad exercise tests available; in this three part series, we’ve only touched the surface with some of the simpler and more common ones. We hope these will be a good start when you are assessing your fitness and planning your goals. Be sure to ask your trainer, doctor, or fitness consultant about other tests that address your specific conditions and needs.
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