According to Honours Sport Science Student, Chérien Roux, "The purpose of fitness tests is to measure an athlete's current ability level." For scientific purposes, Roux prefers tests that include both running and strength exercises, such as the U.S Marine Corp's Physical Fitness Test (PFT), which include a 3-mile run (4,8km), along with maximum pull-ups, push-ups and crunches. "Various other measures can also be included, like testing an athlete's 1 rep maximum or 3 rep maximum on power lifts, such as squats, bench-presses and deadlifts," she says.
According to Roux, whichever test an athlete chooses, certain protocols need to be adhered to, in order to validate the functionality of the tests. "Unfortunately, too many athletes allow their egos to interfere with their proper execution of exercises. Over the years I have witnessed people cheating vigorously during fitness tests, just to 'perform' better than their fellow athletes, missing the point of these tests," she says.
Roux believes in tests that measure an athlete's functional ability. "It is nearly impossible to cheat with a running test. Most militaries across the world require their soldiers to run a 2.4km run in less than a certain time. The U.S Marine Corp's PFT include a 3 mile run (4.8 km) with age and gender time limits. For example, a female of my age should complete the 3 mile run in less than 30 minutes and 50 seconds. The most important requirement for running tests is to start and finish from the same point. A 3 mile run downhill would obviously result in a faster time and should therefore not be considered valid. As a future sport scientist I like to test my functionality in running (2.4km-5km) and basic strength (pull ups & push ups) every three months."
"Unlike running, where cheating is almost impossible, cheating with strength tests are easy. This is where the following protocols are more applicable," Roux says, outlining them below:
1. Full range of motion
Whether doing push ups, squats, bench presses or any other exercise, execute full range of motions. Doing only half a movement is invalid. With bench presses the weight must touch your chest, before extending your arms fully into a locked position. Push-ups require your chin to touch the ground, before extending your arms fully. A proper pull up is when you lock your arms when hanging on the bar and then using your core, back and arm muscles to pull yourself up to the bar. Your chin needs to touch the bar (flexing your arms) and then be lowered back down locking your arms (extending).
2. Steady movement
In the PFT they do not count your pull ups when you use momentum. Cross-fit competitions allow athletes to swing up to the bar. Functionally this is not effective and should be avoided when an athlete truly wants to measure their strength. The U.S. Marine Corps discounts explosive repetitions, using any form of momentum. Bouncing weights of your chest with bench-presses are not allowed. Use steady movements to complete repetitions (2 counts up and 2 counts down is a good guideline). One should also preferably pause halfway through repetitions for a brief moment. One push-up rep will be as follows: lower your upper body down until your chin touches the ground, pause for a brief moment, then push yourself up until your arms are fully extended.
3. Proper form
Exercises should be executed while maintaining proper form. Athletes risk injuries by doing exercises poorly. Some common mistake includes raising your hips off a bench while doing bench-presses, overly bending forward doing squats and doing push-ups like a worm, whereby athletes raise their upper bodies with their lower bodies following, as opposed to keeping your entire body in sync.
If you truly want to monitor your improvement do the exercises properly. Various charts are available here to compare your times or repetitions to established norms. It is always good to establish a baseline fitness level based on the norms and work from there onwards to improve. It is important to remember that when doing these tests based on the norms, is to keep yourself intrinsically motivated thus striving for functionality.
Finally, when you are a new runner don't worry about meeting the norms right away, rather focus on for example running a 4km without stopping or doing a pull up with a lighter resistance band for assistance, as soon as you are able to do that you can then start to focus on meeting the norms.
