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Lab 2

Determining Aerobic Fitness

Assessing your current level of aerobic fitness will help you define goals, develop a personalized exercise prescription, and monitor your progress. One of the following three tests can be used to classify your fitness level. Please choose the one you feel most comfortable completing to get an idea of your current aerobic fitness.

By performing the same assessment monthly, you can chart your aerobic fitness level improvements - if it is one of your goals.

Bench-Step Test

The bench-step test consists of 3 minutes of stepping up and down on a bench and then determining your recovery pulse rate at intervals during the 3.5 minutes immediately following the exercise. This test does not predict VO2max (a measurement of how much oxygen your body uses), instead, the sum of the pulse counts is used to classify your aerobic fitness level. The recovery heart rate (HR) is a function of both the extent of HR elevation during the period of exercise and the rate at which HR returns to resting once the exercise is over. Your level of aerobic fitness influences both factors. The more quickly your HR "recovers", the better your cardiovascular function tends to be. With regular aerobic type of exercise (such as; bike riding, walking, jogging, swimming, cardio machines, aerobic classes, etc.), your heart rate will recover quicker and your pulse count total will go down.

Procedure

1. Find a bench 16 - 18 inches high.
2. Perform the step in a four-step cadence: up-up-down-down. Standing before the bench, step up with your lead foot, raise yourself onto the bench, straighten your lead leg completely, and step up with your other foot. The lower yourself to the floor with one foot and bring the other foot back down to the floor.
3. Repeat this process for 3 minutes, performing 30 stepping cycles each minute. The four-step cadence per cycle (up-up-down-down) gives 120 steps per minute.
4. At the end of 3 minutes, sit down on the bench. Recovery HR is counted three times, at 1-, 2-, and 3-minute intervals. Prior to each count, gently palpate your carotid, radial, or temporal artery, and then check your pulse for 30-second intervals.
5. Record your pulse count from each 30-second interval. Add them together to compute your Recovery Index.




Recovery HR (1) _____ + (2) _____ + (3) _____= _____ Recovery Index





6. Consult Table 1 (Recovery Index, below) to determine your fitness evaluation. Fitness classification from Table 3.9

Rockport Walking Fitness Test

The object of this test is to walk as fast as you can for 1 mile and record your time and 15-second pulse count immediately following the walk.

VO₂max can be estimated from the following calculation: (Where gender = 0 for female and 1 for male; time = walk time to the nearest hundreth of a minute; and HR = heart rate (bpm) at the end of the walking test.)

Find your Fitness classification from Table 3.10 under the VO₂max column..

Cooper 1.5 Mile Run/Walk Fitness Test

The object is to run (or run/walk) as fast as you can for 1.5 miles. Try to achieve an even pace, but you may walk for a time if you become too tired to keep running. It is important to pace yourself at the beginning of the run so that you don’t start out too fast. You need to record your time at the end of the test to the nearest second.

Find your Fitness classification from Table 3.10 under the 1.5-Mile RunTime column.

Table 3.10

Source: Adapted from E.T. Howley and B.D. Franks, Health/Fitness Instructor's Handbook, 2nd ed. (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics Press, 1992).

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