How To Set New Fitness Goals? Try These 8 Fitness Tests

How many people do you really see pushing themselves in the gym?

Are there many guys and girls who hit the exit doors with sweat pouring down their face and shaky legs, or folks who can hardly stand up following their leg workouts?

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If your gym’s anything like most commercial gyms, then the above is probably a seldom seen sight.

And that’s the main issue with not having goals. We’ve all been there – struggling for motivation, no real end goal in mind and nothing to aim for can leave you feeling like you’re spinning your wheels and not really training for anything or making progress.

This is why goals are so important. But how do you decide on your goals?

The bets way is to test yourself in certain disciplines, set yourself some sort of target, then re-test later down the line. 

Body Composition Tests

1. Weight

Weight is the most basic of all fitness tests, but it can be a useful one.

The most common goal for the average gym-goer is weight loss. While most people don’t necessarily mean they want to lose weight (more on this later) weighing yourself is an ultra-simple way to see how you’re progressing.

Weigh yourself once a week (weight fluctuates too much day to day to bother doing it any more often than weekly), first thing in the morning and before you've had anything to eat.

Set yourself a goal of averaging a 1 to 1.5 weight loss each week over the course of 8 weeks. By aiming for an average loss over a prolonged period of time, you won’t beat yourself up if you do fall short of your target at one weigh in.

The only downside to measuring weight is that it’s not all that accurate. When losing fat, your weight should certainly go down, but total body weight is also affected by the foods you've eaten, your bowel and bladder movements, the amount of carbohydrate stored in your muscles and many other factors. This leads on to…

2. Body Fat

Measuring your body fat percentage is a far more accurate, reliable way of monitoring body composition.

When people say they want to lose weight, they actually mean they want to lose fat. After all, you wouldn't be happy if your weight dropped, but you didn't lose fat and looked exactly the same, would you?

First up is a set of body fat monitoring scales – these are useful, but aren't overly reliable. Instead, purchase a set of body fat calipers.

These pinch the skin on certain sections of your body (usually tricep, upper-back, abdominal and thigh) and give a reading for each area. Add up the combined skin fold totals, then use the chart that comes with the calipers to find your total body fat percent. They might look tricky to use, but are actually remarkably easy. You may want to get a partner to help though.

Let’s Get Physical

Depending on what your goals are, there are a number of fitness tests you can use to gauge where you currently are, and use to set yourself a new aim:

3. One Rep Max Test

This simply involves seeing how much weight you can lift on a certain exercise. Typically, power-lifters will perform the squat, bench press and deadlift, while Olympic lifters will test their snatch and clean and jerk.

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You can however use any lift you like – other good tests include overhead press, weighted chin-up, weighted dip or push-up and power clean maxes. Avoid testing isolation moves like curls and lateral raises though, as it’s too easy to cheat, plus the heavy loads are too stressful for your joints.

Ask a training partner or spotter to assist and make sure you conduct the tests safely, warm up thoroughly and lift with good form.

4. Reps Test

This is very similar, but tests your maximum weight for a certain number of reps – usually three, five or 10.

5. Bleep Test

The bleep test is the ultimate test of cardiovascular endurance.

The first round involves walking from one end of the track to the other. You’ll hear a bleep every time you should reach the end of the track. Every round, the gap between these bleeps get shorter, indicating you need to speed up. Go for as long as you can. If you’re one of the genetic elite who can get to the end of the test, you’ll more or less be at an all out sprint by the final stage.

6. Box Jump/ Broad Jump

Want to test your maximum power output? Then the box or broad jump tests are for you.

Stack aerobic steps on top of each other and see how many you can stack before you don’t make the jump. The steps are only around 3 inches in height each, meaning you can make small increments. Alternatively, if you don’t have aerobic steps, stand next to a wall with your arm extended above your head and make a mark with a piece of chalk. Then jump up and make a mark with the chalk at the peak of your jump. Measure the gap between the two.

7. Generic Cardio Test

Select a piece of cardio vascular equipment – either the treadmill, bike, elliptical, rower or stepper and set yourself a time to go as far as possible, or a certain distance to complete as quickly as you can.

This is an incredibly easy test to set up and re-test, just make sure you use the same piece of equipment every time to avoid any variances.

8. The Ultimate Warrior Challenge

This is a bit of a random test for all you body weight buffs out there. Complete as many puhsups as you can in 60 seconds, then rest for 15 seconds. Go for maximum chin-ups in 60 seconds next, then another 15 seconds rest. Repeat twice more using sit ups and dips for your last two exercises. Add up your total reps on all four for a goal to beat next time round.