Do you know how fit you are?

I do.

As the title of this blog indicates, I’m working on improving my fitness.  Intuitively I knew that I wasn’t fit, and now I have quantitative numbers to back that up (and to spur me on).

Yesterday, I found The President’s Challenge Adult Fitness Test.  You can take a series of simple tests, plug in the numbers, and the website tells you where you stand compared to others in your age group in aerobic fitness, muscular strength, flexibility, and overall.  Even better than comparing yourself to others, you can repeat the tests at future dates, and guage your improvement.  Since today is the first of the month, it seems like a good plan to repeat the tests at the same time every month.

So, here are my results, dismal as they are.

Aerobic Fitness

• 1 mile walk in 15:58; heart rate 148; 20%ile

Muscular Strength

• Half Sit-ups in one minute: 20; 20%ile
• Push-ups: 7; 20%ile

Flexibility

• Sit-and-Reach: 11; 5%ile

Overall Score

• 16%ile

We’ll call this a baseline. . .

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