Is Your Workout Working? A Simple Fitness Test Lets You Know

Friday September 11, 2009

Are you about to become an exercise dropout? Many people quit exercise because they don't see any real results from their efforts. If you want to know if your workout is paying off, you could undergo an elaborate (and often expensive) fitness assessment at a local gym or sports medicine facility. Or, you could do your own basic fitness test right now, at home.

The Push Up Fitness Test

If I had to pick one, easy-to-use fitness test to determine overall fitness, the push up test would probably be the one. Sure there are many other more precise and elaborate ways to assess cardiovascular endurance, strength and body composition, but if you want to get an overall view of someone's general state of fitness, it's hard to beat the push up test.

What's So Great About Push Ups?

This simple exercise engages muscles throughout the entire body -- from head to toe -- in order to maintain a rigid position.
It requires no equipment.
It can be done anywhere.
It can exhaust muscles quickly.
It is scalable and can be made easier or harder with simple adjustments to body position.
It clearly measures progress over time.
It builds upper body strength quickly

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