Measure your stamina with these DIY
fitness tests. And, if you manage to do it all without feeling breathless, declare yourself perfectly fit!
Have you ever tried
rotating your neck from one side to another
to check your flexibility? Or, standing on one leg to test your balance? It’s time you did it. Because experts say that the fitness parameters go way
beyond just a happy heart and two
healthy lungs. Here are 20 ways to put your body and mind to the ultimate fitness
test. If you fail more than half, it’s time to be concerned. You may need to consider joining a gym or doing regular
workouts on your own to optimise your health.
Swim
through
1. Swim through
If you can swim 650 metres in 12 minutes or
less
2. You can see most of your feet while standing up straight
3. Your heart rate is less than
70 beats (per minute) when you get out of bed, especially early in
the morning
4. Hip-waist ratio
Take a measuring tape and measure your hips with it. Now, measure your waist. Divide your waist size by your hip size.if the ratio is less than 0.8, consider it normal
5. Balance on one leg
Lift one foot about 10 inches off the ground
so you’re standing on one leg. Hold this stance for as long as possible. Check if you can manage to do it for 25 to 40
seconds
Balance
on one leg
6. You can cover 2.5 km by
running for 10 minutes or less
7. You can manage to perform 40
floor push-ups, or 60 half push-ups in one go
8. Test your neck
Sit straight and tell someone to watch you
from behind as you turn your head
from left to right. Ask them to notice what they can see: Eyelashes? Your nose? Depending on how much is visible, you can judge the flexibility of your neck. The more they
can see, the better it is
9. Hands hake be hind your back
Raise your left arm, and then bend it from the elbow backwards, so that it falls somewhere between your shoulders. Then take the other arm behind you, and attempt to make the hands meet
10. You enjoy your sex sessions for
more than 30 minutes
11. Touch and go
Mark four points in a square, each 15 feet
apart. Now stand in the middle and set the timer to 15 seconds. Move as fast as
you can to touch the point on your left with your right hand and right with your left hand. Repeat the pattern while you move clockwise touching all the points.
Try three sets
12. You can perform more than 30 sit-ups in one minute. Your back should be straight and your knees should be in line with your heel
13. Exercise your body
You can perform 15 minutes of muscle strengthening exercises and 15 minutes of stretches,
three to four times a week
14. Your blood pressure is 120/70
15. Aerobic activity
You can tolerate 45 minutes to one hour of
moderate intensity aerobics or 30
minutes of intense aerobics (this can include running, Stairmaster or dance)
16. You can manage a vertical high jump of 26 inches. Try marking your jump on a wall with chalked hands
17. You can climb more than 25
steps on a flight of stairs without gasping for breath
18. Your BMI (Body Mass Index) is in the healthy range, given your weight and height. your BMI is: your weight (in kilograms) divided by the square of your height (in metres)
19. Flexibility test
Lie down on an elevated surface and hold one
knee with both hands as you extend
your other leg. Make sure you relax your hip while doing this. Then, lower the free
leg as far as possible and keep it
straight while you do so. If your
extended leg drops below your hips,
your flexibility is excellent. If your extended leg is parallel to
your hips, then it is good. But if your extended leg is above parallel to your hips, it is below average.
20. Monitor your heart
If your heart rate is 81 or less after stepping up and down a
staircase for three minutes; or between 220 to 226 after a brisk walk of 1.6 km, you’re fit
(With inputs from: Mickey Mehta, India’s
holistic health guru; Deepak Rawat,
fitness training manager, Fitness First; Althea Shah, vice-president – marketing and fitness expert, Gold’s Gym India and Wanitha Ashok, fitness and body
transformation expert)
