Activity: Fitness Test

On SCOPE's 'Games' episode, you saw Monica and Nicola find their fitness levels with a series of tests. Here's how they did it. Watch the clip.

Monica Chilling out between tests

What you need

• A stopwatch
• A tape measure
• A calculator (or paper and pen)
• A wall
• Chalk
• A helper to do the timing and measuring.

What to do

Anaerobic sprint test

1. Measure a 10 m track and get your friend to time your sprint from one end to the other.
2. Do this a total of 3 times.
3. Work out your average time over 10 metres.

(To get the average add the three times together and divide by three)

The Vertical Jump Test

1. Stand straight with your shoulder next to the wall and hold the chalk in one hand.
2. Reach straight up with your hand and make a mark on the wall with the chalk.
3. Time to test your jump - from a standing start, jump straight up and mark the wall at the highest point you can.
4. Use the tape to measure how high you jumped.

Endurance or Aerobic Fitness Test

1. First check your pulse over 15 seconds. You can measure your pulse or heart beat easiest with two fingers lightly pressed on the inside of your wrist, or on the side of your neck just under your jaw.
2. Multiply this by 4 and you have your resting heart rate (which will be beats per minute).
3. Now it's time to get your working pulse.
4. Have your friend time for 1 minute while you do step-ups, skipping or star jumps.
5. After this exercise test your pulse until it returns to its resting rate.

How do you compare?

Olympic Champion Maurice Greene covers 10m in just over one second.

Female volleyball players can jump an average of about 50 cm and males a huge 60 cm!

Top triathletes often have a resting heart rate under 50 seconds.

What's happening?

The first two tests are both measuring anaerobic fitness, which literally means "without oxygen". That doesn't mean you don't breathe during these tests, just that the energy is produced directly from sources stored in the muscles. It relates to short, high intensity activities like sprinting and leaping where the body's oxygen demand exceeds supply.

The third test measures aerobic fitness, which is how well your body can supply oxygen and energy to your muscles to continue exercise, or to recover after it. Because it is your blood that carries the oxygen, we measure how much, or how fast it is pumping. This tells us how much oxygen is needed, and when you body is fully stocked up again. This kind of fitness is best for endurance sports like the marathons and triathlons.