How fit are you for your age? This free at-home fitness test guides you through five simple checks (resting heart rate, sit-and-reach, push-ups, a forearm plank and the 1-mile walk test) with built-in timers, then compares each result with published norms for your age and sex.
Five quick checks, one screen at a time, with timers built in. You get a result for each test, a plain-English summary for your age and sex, and the three most useful next steps.
- Resting heart rate
- Sit-and-reach
- Push-ups
- Forearm plank
- 1-mile walk
Norms differ by age and sex, so we need these to compare your results fairly. Nothing leaves your device.
These questions cover the same ground as the PAR-Q+ readiness questionnaire. Answer honestly. If any answer is yes, we will only offer the gentle tests.
Has a doctor ever told you that you have a heart condition or high blood pressure?
Do you get chest pain at rest, during daily activities or when you are active?
In the last 12 months, have you lost your balance because of dizziness, or passed out?Answer no if the dizziness only came from breathing hard during hard exercise.
Have you been diagnosed with any other long-term medical condition?For example diabetes, lung or kidney disease, arthritis or osteoporosis.
Do you take prescribed medicine for a long-term condition?
Do you have a bone, joint, muscle or back problem that could get worse with exercise?Answer no if an old problem no longer limits what you can do.
Has a doctor ever said you should only exercise under medical supervision?
Are you unwell or injured today, or are you pregnant?
Please check with your doctor before the push-up, plank and 1-mile walk tests. One or more of your answers means harder effort could carry extra risk, and a doctor or qualified exercise professional can tell you what is safe for you.
You can still do two gentle checks today: resting heart rate and sit-and-reach (skip the sit-and-reach if you have back or hip pain, or if it hurts).
For a full screening, the official PAR-Q+ has follow-up questions for each condition: eparmedx.com.
A lower resting heart rate often goes with better aerobic fitness. It also moves with sleep, stress, caffeine and illness, so treat it as a clue, not a verdict.
- Sit quietly for 5 minutes. First thing in the morning, before coffee, is best.
- Find your pulse with two fingers on the thumb side of your wrist, or at the side of your neck.
- Tap start. After the 3-second countdown, count every beat until the double beep (30 seconds).
- Enter the beats you counted. Or, if you have a watch or monitor reading, enter that in beats per minute.
This checks the flexibility of your hamstrings and lower back. It copies the Canadian flexometer test at home: a reach that ends exactly level with the soles of your feet counts as 26 cm.
- Set up: shoes off. Sit on the floor with your legs straight and the soles of your feet flat against a sturdy box or the bottom stair. Lay a ruler or tape measure on top so it points toward you. The edge level with your soles is zero.
- Warm up: do a seated hurdle stretch (one leg straight, the other foot tucked in) for 20 seconds per leg, twice.
- Keep your knees straight, put one hand on top of the other and reach forward slowly along the ruler as far as you can. Hold for 2 seconds. No bouncing.
- Measure how far your fingertips went past your soles. If you did not reach them, enter how far short you were as a negative number.
- Do it twice and enter your best try.
Stop if you feel sharp pain in your back or the back of your legs. Skip this test if you have a back or hip problem.
This measures upper-body muscular endurance. The norms use full push-ups for men and knee push-ups for women, so do the version that matches the norms you picked.
- Start face down, hands under your shoulders, body straight from head to heels, on your toes.
- Lower until your chin touches the floor (your stomach should not touch), then push back up to straight arms.
- Keep your back straight the whole time. Do as many as you can in a row, without resting.
- Stop when you are straining hard or cannot keep good form for two reps in a row. Only count good reps.
Stop straight away if you feel chest pain, dizziness or joint pain.
This checks core endurance. There are no reliable age-based norms for the plank, so we score it against practical benchmarks and leave it out of your overall summary.
- Rest for a couple of minutes after the push-ups.
- Forearms on the floor, elbows under your shoulders, hands in front. Up on your toes, with your body in one straight line from head to heels.
- Tap start. Get into position during the 3-second countdown and hold. You will hear a short beep every 30 seconds.
- Tap stop when your hips sag or rise and you cannot fix it. Breathe normally and do not hold your breath. There is no need to go past 2 minutes.
Stop if you feel back pain, chest pain or dizziness. Holding your breath raises blood pressure, so keep breathing.
Your walking time and heart rate at the finish give an estimate of your VO2 max, the best single measure of aerobic fitness. You can do this test today or another day, or skip it.
- Route: a flat, measured 1 mile (1.61 km). On a standard 400 m track, that is 4 laps in the inside lane plus 9 m. A GPS running app works too.
- Warm up with 5 minutes of easy walking.
- Tap start and walk the mile as fast as you can at a steady pace you can keep the whole way. Walk only, no jogging.
- At the finish, tap stop. Then straight away (within 5 seconds) tap the 15-second pulse count and count your heartbeats until the double beep. With a heart-rate monitor, note the reading in your last 10 seconds of walking instead.
Stop and rest if you feel chest pain, unusual breathlessness, dizziness or sickness. Cool down with a few minutes of easy walking.
How this fitness test works
The test runs five simple checks in an order that keeps each one fair. Resting heart rate comes first, while you are still rested. The sit-and-reach comes next, then push-ups and the plank. The 1-mile walk comes last because it tires you out the most. Each test has its own screen with instructions, and a timer where you need one.
- Resting heart rate: a 30-second pulse count, doubled. It is compared with US national survey data (NHANES 1999 to 2008) for your age group and sex.
- Sit-and-reach: measures hamstring and lower-back flexibility. A reach that ends level with your soles scores 26 cm, as on the Canadian flexometer. It is compared with 2016 to 2017 Canadian Health Measures Survey percentiles for your 5-year age group and sex.
- Push-ups: full push-ups for men and knee push-ups for women, done to fatigue, then rated with the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (CSEP) norms that ACSM reproduces.
- Forearm plank: core endurance. No credible age-based norms exist, so it is scored against labelled practical benchmarks (under 30 s, 30 to 59 s, 60 to 89 s, 90 to 119 s, 120 s or more). For context, college students in one study held a median of 110 s (men) and 72 s (women).
- 1-mile walk (Rockport test): your weight, age, sex, walk time and finish heart rate go into the Kline et al. (1987) equation to estimate VO2 max. That estimate is then placed against the FRIEND registry treadmill percentiles for your age group and sex.
The norms behind your results
Each test puts you in one of five bands, from Needs improvement through Fair, Good and Very good to Excellent. The cut-offs come from these sources:
- Push-ups: CSEP categories for ages 20 to 69 in 10-year groups. Below 20, you are compared with 20 to 29. From 70, you are compared with 60 to 69.
- Sit-and-reach: below the 20th percentile is Needs improvement, then Fair (20th to 39th), Good (40th to 59th), Very good (60th to 79th) and Excellent (80th and up). The norms cover ages 18 to 69, and from 70 you are compared with 65 to 69.
- Estimated VO2 max: below the 25th percentile is Needs improvement, then Fair (25th to 49th), Good (50th to 74th), Very good (75th to 89th) and Excellent (90th and up). The percentiles were measured on treadmill tests in the FRIEND registry for ages 20 to 79.
- Resting heart rate: lower is better here. 10th percentile or lower is Excellent, up to the 25th is Very good, up to the 50th is Good, up to the 75th is Fair, and above the 75th is Needs improvement. The data use the age groups 20 to 39, 40 to 59, 60 to 79 and 80+.
Percentile norms describe how people of your age and sex actually score. They are not health cut-offs, and a high percentile does not by itself mean you are healthy.
How the overall “fitness for your age” summary works
We give each band a point value, from 1 for Needs improvement to 5 for Excellent. Then we average the tests that have proper age-and-sex norms: push-ups, sit-and-reach, the walk test and resting heart rate. The average is rounded to the nearest band. You need at least two of those tests for a summary. The plank is shown but left out because its benchmarks are not age-based. If you take a medicine that slows your heart rate, the heart-rate results are left out too.
It is a rough snapshot, not a precise score. Field tests have measurement error. The walk-test estimate, for example, can be off by around 4 to 5 mL/kg/min. Different tests also measure different things, so the bands for each test tell you more than the average does. Aerobic fitness matters most for long-term health. The American Heart Association calls it a vital sign worth measuring, so give the walk test extra attention.
Tips for an accurate, safe test
- Test when you are rested, not the day after a hard workout or a poor night’s sleep.
- Avoid caffeine, a big meal and nicotine for at least an hour before the heart-rate checks.
- Rest 2 to 3 minutes between tests. You can do the walk on a different day if that suits you.
- Use strict form. Half push-ups and a sagging plank make your result look better than it is, and they make retests meaningless.
- If you have a heart condition, high blood pressure, diabetes, joint problems or take regular medication, check with your doctor before the harder tests. Stop any test that causes chest pain, dizziness, unusual breathlessness or sharp pain.
Retest every 8 weeks
Fitness changes slowly, so retest every 8 weeks. Use the same route, time of day, technique and pulse method each time. Tap “Save my results” and the test keeps a dated history in your browser, so next time you can see exactly what improved. Most adults who train consistently see push-ups, plank time and walk time improve within one or two retests.
Next steps: build fitness with the 12-week strength program, train your aerobic base with the zone 2 heart rate calculator, and read how to raise VO2 max after 35, strength training after 35 and how to start working out after 40.
Sources
- Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology. The Canadian Physical Activity, Fitness & Lifestyle Approach (CPAFLA), 3rd ed. Ottawa: CSEP; 2003. Push-up protocol and norms, as reproduced in American College of Sports Medicine. ACSM’s Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription, 11th ed. Wolters Kluwer; 2021.
- Hoffmann MD, Colley RC, Doyon CY, Wong SL, Tomkinson GR, Lang JJ. Normative-referenced percentile values for physical fitness among Canadians. Health Reports (Statistics Canada). 2019;30(10):14-22. Sit-and-reach percentiles (Table 3) and flexometer protocol.
- Kline GM, Porcari JP, Hintermeister R, et al. Estimation of VO2max from a one-mile track walk, gender, age, and body weight. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1987;19(3):253-259.
- Kaminsky LA, Arena R, Myers J. Reference standards for cardiorespiratory fitness measured with cardiopulmonary exercise testing: data from the Fitness Registry and the Importance of Exercise National Database (FRIEND). Mayo Clin Proc. 2015;90(11):1515-1523.
- Ostchega Y, Porter KS, Hughes J, Dillon CF, Nwankwo T. Resting pulse rate reference data for children, adolescents, and adults: United States, 1999-2008. National Health Statistics Reports no. 41. NCHS; 2011.
- Strand SL, Hjelm J, Shoepe TC, Fajardo MA. Norms for an isometric muscle endurance test. J Hum Kinet. 2014;40:93-102. Context for the plank benchmarks (college-aged sample only).
- Mayo Clinic. Heart rate: what’s normal? How to take your pulse, and the usual adult resting range of 60 to 100 bpm.
- Warburton DER, Jamnik VK, Bredin SSD, Gledhill N; PAR-Q+ Collaboration. The Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire for Everyone (PAR-Q+). The safety questions above are based on its topics but are not the official form.
- Ross R, Blair SN, Arena R, et al. Importance of assessing cardiorespiratory fitness in clinical practice: a case for fitness as a clinical vital sign. AHA scientific statement. Circulation. 2016;134:e653-e699.
This fitness test is for general education. It is not medical advice or a diagnosis. Field tests only estimate fitness, and results can vary from day to day. Check with your doctor before hard exercise or fitness testing if you have a heart or lung condition, high blood pressure, diabetes, joint or back problems, are pregnant or take regular medication. Stop any test straight away if you feel chest pain, dizziness, unusual breathlessness or sharp pain.
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