Tests can tell you a lot about yourself — like whether you have Covid or what kind of friend you are. And some of them can give you an idea of your fitness level, by showing you where you need to improve and allowing you to track your progress.
But they can also be fun: How’s your sense of balance? Can you hang onto a pull-up bar for 30 seconds? Can you get out of a chair 20 times in 30 seconds? How fast can you run a mile?
Here are some of our favorite fitness tests. Try them out; you just might surprise yourself.
Learn to be flexible
To move comfortably through the world, you need to be flexible and mobile. Flexibility simply measures how far your muscles can stretch, and mobility measures how strong and stable you are as you move.
Both flexibility and mobility are difficult to regain once you lose them. Spending a little time maintaining them now can pay big dividends later. Here’s how to check how flexible you are.
Check your power levels
Even if you are doing plenty of strength training, you might not be as powerful as you need to be. Power is the ability to deploy strength quickly, and it’s crucial to aging well. If you slip, it’s power that allows you to catch yourself before you hit the ground. Getting luggage into the overhead compartment, even opening a jar of pickles — that’s all power. Take this simple test to find out if you need more of it.