FITNESS TESTING

What is fitness testing?

Fitness testing is an essential part of any training program, providing valuable information for assessing and monitoring the physiological and performance measures related to health, fitness and sports performance.

So, why do we need fitness tests? Fitness tests allow us to assess the key components related to health, fitness and sports performance.

From a health perspective they can tell us what areas we need to work on to improve health outcomes. In this way they allow health professionals to make lifestyle and training recommendations that have a positive effect on health.

From a sports perspective they can highlight an athletes strengths and weaknessess. Why is this important? Whilst an athletes performance in competition – their competitive fitness – is the ultimate sports performance test, this is only part of the picture. Competitive fitness is affected by many different physiological factors – aerobic fitness, anaerobic condition, strength, power, muscular endurance, flexibility, body weight and composition – as well as psychological factors.

Fitness tests can be used to explain and understand why one athlete is quicker, fitter or stronger than another.

Why use fitness tests?

From a health perspective, fitness tests allow you to look at a range of components related to health and fitness.

From a sporting perspective they allow us to look beyond competitive performance, giving insights into why we are able to compete at a certain level. Importantly, they provide information that allows us to make the best use of our training time.

Whilst there are a number of reasons to use fitness tests, there are two primary reasons why athletes use them: Firstly, they can be used to highlight key areas to focus on during a training plan by highlighting strength and weaknesses. Secondly, they can be used to identify the optimum training intensities to use in training. As an example, a lactate threshold test can identify the specific heart rate, power and speed at the lactate threshold. This allows the athlete to optimise training by ensuring training intensity is high enough during more intense training and not too high on easier training days.

Summary of the Benefits of Fitness Testing

To establish base levels of fitness
To assess the key components of fitness and performance
To identify an athletes strengths and weaknesses, and highlight the most “trainable” and beneficial areas to focus on during the training program
To establish the optimum training zones (heart rate, power, speed etc) and intensities (low, moderate, high intensity etc) to use within the training program
To assess the effectiveness of a training program and help to plan the next stage of the training plan
To improve the athletes understanding of their own fitness level
To help with goal setting, training focus and motivation level

Types of fitness tests

A variety of different fitness tests are available for assessing the various components of health, fitness and sports performance.

Some of the fitness tests are laboratory based requiring specialist equipment. However, many can be assessed away from the lab, either in field or gym based settings.

Aerobic fitness tests

Aerobic fitness tests measure components related to aerobic fitness and endurance such as maximal aerobic capacity and the lactate threshold. Here, laboratory based tests provide the most accurate and useful measures of aerobic fitness. However, these can be expensive and are not widely available. As such a number of field based tests have been devised to provide an estimate of aerobic fitness.

Laboratory based tests of aerobic fitness

Field Based tests

Cooper 12-minute Run Test
Cooper 2.4km Run Test
15 minute Balke Test
Functional Threshold (FTP) cycling Test
Velocity at VO2max Field based test
Running efficiency field based test
Multi stage fitness tests
Heart rate reserve

Anaerobic endurance and capacity tests

The following tests can be used for the assessment of anaerobic endurance and anaerobic capacity.

Laboratory Based Anaerobic Tests

MART (Maximal-Anaerobic Running Test)
Wingate Test
Cunningham and Faulkner Test

Field Based Anaerobic Tests

RAST (Running-Based Anaerobic Sprint Test)

Power Tests

Since power is a measure of strength and speed, these tests assess our ability to apply force very quickly.

1 rep max test
Vertical jump test
Standing Broad Jump Test
30m Sprint test
Medicine ball throw.

Tests of muscular endurance

Whereas power relates to our ability to apply force quickly, muscular endurance refers to our ability to perform repeated muscular contractions over a prolonged time period. As such, muscular endurance tests our used to assess our ability to perform repeated work. From this we are able to calculate how long a muscle group can continue to work before fatigue sets in.

Isokinetic dynanometer
Press up test
Sit up test
Squat test
Leg extension/leg curl

General Strength Tests

Grip Strength (Dynamnometer)
Leg Press
Squat
Leg Curl
Leg Extension
Bench Press
Overhead Press
Chin Up

Flexibility tests

The following tests assess muscle flexibility and the range of motion of specific joints.

Sit-and-reach test – used to measure the flexibility of your lower back and hamstring muscle groups.
Static flexibility tests: neck, shoulders, trunk, hips, wrists, ankle

Balance Tests

The following tests are used to assess balance and proprioception.

Wobble board
Standing Stork test
Standing Stork test (eyes closed)

Alternatives:

Ground Contact Time Balance – gives a measure of symmetry when running

Body Composition Tests

Body fat and body composition tests are useful for health assessments as well as for athletes looking to monitor levels of lean body mass and body fat.

Waist circumference measurement
Waist to hip ratio
Body Mass Index (BMI)
Skin fold calliper measurements
Bioelectrical Impedence Measurement
Hydrostatic Weighing
3-D Bodyscanners
Bioimpedence Spectroscopy