"Fitness test" for tracking progress?

[Connie Brown]

What I'd like is a simple home "fitness test" that I could do periodically, like every 4 months, to celebrate my progress as I get back into shape.

I'll also use weight and inches records. (not BF% since this is home-based, but I could derive that from the tape measure).

I'm pretty stoked that I will be awesome sooner or later and I thought it would be fun to do incremental progress recordkeeping.

A quick Google search on "fitness test" returns some hits - any recommendations?

thanks,
Connie

[Doug Szolek]

A rather simple reply...

You could go the OCS route and take the Swipe and Mill and test your all out performance in each of them for either total duration or total reps in a given duration. Record that and go for the same test at your next interval.

[bob_stra]

http://topendsports.com/testing/tests.htm

Lists most of the common fitness test taught in colleges.

Honestly, I'm somewhat apathetic towards them. Infact. during the last set that I underwent, I actively found ways to cheat on them using screwing arms, performance breathing, PNF pre-stretch etc ;-)

(the beep test still kicked my ass though. Couldn't cheat the calipers either)

I like coach Szolek's idea. You can't cheat gravity or time.

Did you read this?

http://circularstrengthmag.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=59

One other thing I like to do is periodically check my breath rest pause potential after all exercise (eg quad hop). If my time increases over the weeks, I know something's going right ;-)

Guess it depends what you wanna track. Those Tanita bodyfat scales are steal at around $60. There's also online fat coverters that estimate the % based on hip:belly:chest. I cross checked mine with the scales...they pretty much agreed with each other.