Fitness

The President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports launched its Adult Fitness Test in May of 2008. I am one of those that missed this announcement as I am certainly not one that does a very good job of watching my own fitness. I tend to focus on other parts of my life and find it difficult to balance out those Six Spokes of Life.

So recently I was reading the October issue of Readers Digest and found a pretty simple and easy guide to measure yourself as an adult. I found that I'm not close to these particular and simple tests. Yet I'm setting a goal for myself to achieve these.

You will see they don't take expensive equipment or gym memberships to achieve them. So we will see how I do and how long it takes.

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The Test: Push-ups
The Goal:
Women (on knees): 33 without stopping,
Men: 40 without stopping
Tips to Boost Your Score (gradually, to prevent injury): Work your chest and triceps three days a week. Vary the push-ups by doing them on an incline or decline, or do some chest flies or chair dips, says personal trainer Kelli Calabrese, author of Feminine, Firm & Fit.

The Test: 1.5-mile run
The Goal:
Women: under 12 minutes,
Men: under 10 minutes
Tips to Boost Your Score (gradually, to prevent injury): Walk/run three times a week, and do non-impact activities like swimming or cycling on the other days. Add a day of interval training (going faster than your normal pace with periods at a much slower pace).

The Test: Half sit-ups
The Goal:
Women: 60 in a minute,
Men: 65 in a minute
Tips to Boost Your Score (gradually, to prevent injury): Do a variety of abdominal exercises three days a week. "Core strength is so important because it improves posture, can reduce back pain, and may help stop a fall as we age," Calabrese says.

The Test: Sit and reach
The Goal:
Women: 9 inches beyond heels,
Men: 8 inches beyond heels
Tips to Boost Your Score (gradually, to prevent injury): After warming up, Calabrese says, increase flexibility by doing the yoga pose downward dog: Position your body in an inverted V, with your hands and feet on the ground and your butt in the air.
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But why get fit? Will it add years, days or just minutes to the length of my life?

The point in my mind is not how much longer one might live by being more physically fit. What it will do is make all of your years of living that much better. One can live to be 85 years of age, but if you are so unfit that walking six steps is a struggle for the last 30 of those years, then the quality of those 85 years just isn't very good.

So try to achieve the goals above; try to join the President's Council and take the Adult Fitness Test. Enjoy a more fit life; enjoy life!
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