Improving your fitness is no different than most aspects of your personal life, you optimize what is important to you. At least, that’s what we should do.
Most of the time we allow our efforts to be random and our results are just as random. As I get older, this becomes more clear: In relationships, work, leisure time, and fitness if I don’t intentionally dedicate myself to honest deliberation about what is important, my time is wasted on marginal returns and disappointing results. Entropy is automatic, but improvement is deliberate.
Dedication and consistency are also impossible without an understanding of the goal. To be clear, consistency is paramount here. You must be able and willing to stick with any plan in order to achieve results. If it’s not obvious to you already, research overwhelmingly demonstrates that improving your fitness is the backbone of a long and healthy life. For most of us it will be the difference between spending the last decade of our lives with sickness and disability or health and vibrancy.
Most of us think about fitness as a way to stay looking and feeling young and healthy, and these are typically byproducts of a good fitness regime. However, staying “fit” is actually your best weapon against most types of chronic diseases. We talk very often about the role diet plays in our cardiovascular and immunological health, but regular exercise is a necessary component to maximizing our healthspan, and this should top the list of fitness goals for everyone.
Maximize Healthspan by Improving Your Fitness
While increasing our healthspan, the period of life spent in good health, free from the chronic diseases and disabilities of aging, is a worthy goal, it’s not the only goal. The first step in creating a fitness plan that meets our needs is to understand our needs. To do that let’s talk about some fitness goals. This list is certainly not complete but it’s a great start and most of us will find at least one we can get on board with. This is an introduction to the most important components of improving your fitness.
Functional Movement
Let’s start with what we call Functional Movement. This can be understood as the ability of your body to maintain mobility and stability at the same time. At PerformPro, we begin each patient case with a thorough movement evaluation. This allows us to understand where limited or altered mechanics are contributing to, or causing pain and injury. We understand that this evaluation isn’t just the best way to begin our diagnostic process but also allows our serious athletes to identify key movement faults that may be reducing their ability to perform. Anyone who wants to learn a new sport, or skill, or improve ones they already do, needs to evaluate their Functional Movement.
Speed
Next is Speed. Here we are talking about maximum velocity or acceleration of the whole body. Think sprinting or speed work for runners. While speed, on its own, is not the most popular fitness goal out there, it does contribute to success in most sports. Plus, adding some speed goals offers some protection from injury to endurance athletes. The standard Speed test is the 20-meter sprint.
The basic 20-meter sprint test is completed after a sufficient warm-up and can be attempted more than once if enough rest is allowed between attempts. Simply, sprint from a standing position 20 meters and record the time. A fit male optimizing for speed should complete the 20-meter sprint in under 3.5 seconds, under 4.0 seconds for females. Elite male sprinters beat 3.0 seconds and females 3.5 seconds.
Power
Power is the maximum force you can produce in the shortest amount of time. Think explosive jumping or throwing. Power is critical to most sports and so, testing power in elite athletes is a complicated and fairly advanced science. However, for our purposes, there are simple ways you can evaluate your own power production at home or in the gym.
A very standard and easy test is the Vertical Jump Test. Standing next to a wall, reach up and mark the highest point you can touch. Then attempt to jump as high as possible over that mark. The difference is your Vertical Jump. A good fitness goal is 50-60 cm for males and 40-50 cm for females.
Strength
Strength is a very common fitness goal and one that should be on everyone’s list because of its healthspan-enhancing abilities. Testing strength is complex because it should be tested in different areas of the body. Even for our self-evaluation, multiple strength tests should be used.
A standard strength test is Grip Strength. For good reason, this study determined that grip strength was a better predictor of all-cause mortality than blood pressure! Usually, a dynamometer is used to measure the maximum grip strength of both hands. But, let’s use a simple Dead Hang test. Grab onto a pull-up bar, arms straight and feet off the ground. See how long you can hang on before losing your grip. Aim for at least 60 seconds (men and women).
Another gold standard strength test is the Leg Extension Test. Here a standard leg extension machine can be used. Using both legs, determine your one-repetition maximum weight. A good standard to aim for is your body weight.
Muscular Endurance
Muscular Endurance is your ability to repeatedly or consistently maintain muscular contractions against resistance. Think about repeated pull-ups or push-ups, kettlebell swings, or even repeated bench presses. Again, muscular endurance is required in most sports and improved muscular endurance allows for gains in strength, power and speed.
To test for muscular endurance, you can try a plank. You should aim for at least 60 seconds. Push-ups are a good test too. A goal of 25, without pausing, for men and 15 for women is ideal.
Aerobic Capacity
The final fitness component I recommend testing is your Aerobic Capacity. Some will know this as their VO2 max, which is the maximum amount of oxygen that your body can consume during physical activity. Because aerobic capacity is so important for athletes, there are very sophisticated testing centers dedicated to precise measurements of VO2 max. But aerobic capacity isn’t just for elite athletes. Anyone determined to become more fit should test and monitor their aerobic capacity. Luckily there are simple ways to test this.
The time-tested and still often used test is the 12-Minute Cooper’s Test. In this test, you get on a treadmill, or a track or use a GPS watch to measure distance and run as far as you can, on a flat surface, in 12 minutes. This can be done after a proper warm-up. For most people getting through 1.5 miles (2.4 km) is a worthy goal.
Improving Your Fitness Takes Commitment
Not sure where to begin in your fitness journey? I suggest starting with a good Functional Movement Evaluation. That way you can address any potential pitfalls, avoid injury, and make the most of your fitness work. Then, take about a week and, one at a time conduct each of the tests I listed above. Are any way below standards? If so, start by improving your fitness in those areas first. Are all looking pretty good? Great, continue to improve your fitness by setting goals to work towards. Maybe you want to complete a triathlon, and muscular endurance and aerobic capacity must be top of your list. Want to learn rock climbing? Put strength at the top.
The most important thing is to stay consistent and keep trying. The journey is the real goal. Keep it fun and make some friends along the way.