Aerobic Fitness Test: The Step Method

Excerpted from The No Sweat Exercise Plan: Lose Weight, Get Healthy, and Live Longer By Harvey B. Simon, M.D. Reprinted by permission of the McGraw-Hill Companies; Copyright 2005 by President and Fellows of Harvard College. All Rights Reserved. For more information or to purchase this book, follow this link: www.health.harvard.edu/books/The_No_Sweat_Exercise_Plan.htm To help assess your aerobic fitness, here is a minimum standard: See if you can walk up five flights of stairs at your own pace without stopping, using the railing only for balance. The test may seem too simple to be useful, but in the days before sophisticated exercise tests were widely available, thoracic surgeons used this very test to see if their patients were fit enough to undergo lung operations. In modern terms, people who pass the five-flight test have maximum oxygen uptake values of at least 20. That level will get you through surgery and daily life, but healthy people should use exercise to build up to levels two or even three times higher. It is unlikely that a health club would ask you to use the stairwell for self-assessment, but it might well use a single 12-inch step or bench to evaluate your fitness. With just a little help, you can do it yourself. Ask someone to time you and count for you so you can concentrate on the task at hand (or foot!). At the signal to begin, step up with your right foot, then bring your left foot up beside it. Follow the up, up with down, down to complete one step. Repeat at a rate of 24 steps per minute for three consecutive minutes. Then rest in a chair for exactly one minute before taking your pulse. Finally, use the YMCA standards (see table below) to see how you stack up. The step test can be quite demanding; if you have been diagnosed with heart disease, if you suspect you may have heart disease, or if you have major risk factors, ask your doctor about a formal stress test instead of taking the step test. And if you are out of shape or think the test may be hard for you, take a one-minute pretest to see how you fare.

Step Test Pulse Count (Using a 60 second pulse count) Age Men 1825 2635 3645 4655 5665 Above 65 Good to Excellent Average to Above Average Poor to Fair 84 or lower 86 or lower 90 or lower 93 or lower 96 or lower 102 or lower 85100 87103 91106 94112 97115 103118 101 or higher 104 or higher 107 or higher 113 or higher 116 or higher 119 or higher

Women

1825 2635 3645 4645 5665 Above 65

93 or lower 94 or lower 96 or lower 101 or lower 103 or lower 105 or lower

94110 95111 97119 102124 104126 106130

111 or higher 112 or higher 120 or higher 125 or higher 127 or higher 131 or higher

Excerpted from The No Sweat Exercise Plan: Lose Weight, Get Healthy, and Live Longer