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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 |
Good to Excellent |
Average to Above
Average |
Poor to Fair |
Men |
18–25 |
84 or lower |
85–100 |
101 or higher |
|
26–35 |
86 or lower |
87–103 |
104 or higher |
|
36–45 |
90 or lower |
91–106 |
107 or higher |
|
46–55 |
93 or lower |
94–112 |
113 or higher |
|
56–65 |
96 or lower |
97–115 |
116 or higher |
|
Above 65 |
102 or lower |
103–118 |
119 or higher |
Women |
18–25 |
93 or lower |
94–110 |
111 or higher |
|
26–35 |
94 or lower |
95–111 |
112 or higher |
|
36–45 |
96 or lower |
97–119 |
120 or higher |
|
46–45 |
101 or lower |
102–124 |
125 or higher |
|
56–65 |
103 or lower |
104–126 |
127 or higher |
|
Above 65 |
105 or lower |
106–130 |
131 or higher |
Excerpted from The No Sweat Exercise Plan:
Lose Weight, Get Healthy, and Live Longer
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