Baseline Fitness Testing

Hunting season is right around the corner and it is prime time to trim off any additional body fat and tone up and/or build muscle in preparation for full heavy packs. No matter where you are in your weight loss, or weight-training program, now is the perfect time to do baseline testing to keep track of progress and help to maintain a high level of accountability.

An exercise journal is the best way to track and assess your training progress. This journal will allow you to reflect back, evaluate and make any modifications to your training program while offering you a starting place in the weight room. The Wilderness Athlete Reboot and Rebuild Programs, both include comprehensive training journals that include daily workouts, meal plans, tips on how to calculate caloric needs and more.

After you have established your baseline, you can reflect back each week to monitor the progress that you are making with your fitness program.

Test Your Resting Heart Rate

You can monitor your cardiovascular improvements by monitoring your resting heart rate. As a general rule of thumb, the less frequent that your heart beats, the more efficiently it is supplying the body with needed blood flow. As your resting heart rate decreases, you know your heart is getting stronger and cardiovascular health and endurance is improving.

Plan ahead for the most accurate test results. At night, set a watch next to your bed that has a second had on it. In the morning, before you actually get out of bed, check your heart rate by placing your index and middle finger on the inside of your wrist below your thumb. Once you locate your pulse, while watching your timer, count the number of beats for 15 seconds and then multiply that number by 4. This number is your resting heart rate.

Muscular Strength & Endurance Testing

Sit Ups

The sit up test will help you keep track of and measure muscular endurance gains of the abdominal muscles.

Score the number of bent leg sit ups that you can perform in a one minute time frame.

The scores listed are used to generally identify acceptable levels of fitness. If you can do more, that’s outstanding, if you do less, this gives you something to work towards.

Age	Male	Female
21-29	37	31
30-39	34	24
40-49	28	19
50-59	23	13

 

Pull Ups

Whatever style or variation of pull up that you perform, be sure that you test the same way during your next evaluation. If you are scaling your pull ups using weighted assist or a band, test with the same aid each time and note improvements in strength. The pull up test is designed to test grip strength, strength and endurance of the arms and shoulder girdle in pulling the body upward.

Classification	Number of Pull Ups
Excellent	15+
Good	12-14
Average	8-11
Fair	5-7
Poor	0-4

 

Bench Press

Strength of major muscles can be measured using a one rep max test or the greatest amount of weight that can be lifted at one time. Warm up for this test with some light weights to prepare the muscles for work and help reduce the risk of injury.

You can take as many trials as needed until you determine your one rep max allocating 1-3 minutes of rest between each attempt. Be sure to have a spotter with you monitoring your biomechanics during the lift.

The score of this test is the maximum number of pounds lifted in one repetition, divided by the total body weight.

The scores listed below are used to identify acceptable levels of fitness:

Classification	Men	Women
Excellent	+1.2	+.48
Good	.99-1.19	.40-.47
Average	.79-.98	.30-.39
Fair	.69-.78	.21-.29
Poor	.00-.68	.00-.20

 

Leg Press

The leg press will test the level of muscular strength in the thighs, hamstrings, gluteus and calf muscles. Warm up for this with some light weights to prepare the muscles for work and help reduce the risk of injury.

You can take as many trials as needed until you determine your five rep max allocating 1-3 minutes of rest between each attempt.

The score of this test is the maximum number of pounds pressed for five repetitions.

Barbell Curl

The barbell curl test will determine the muscular strength of the major muscle groups involved (biceps, biceps brachii and brachioradilais). Warm up for this with some light weights to prepare the muscles for work and help reduce the risk of injury.

You can take as many trials as needed until you determine your three rep max allocating 1-3 minutes of rest between each attempt.

Push Ups

The push up test will help you determine the muscular strength and endurance of the upper body, primarily the triceps, anterior deltoids, and pectorals major.

The push up test is not a timed test. The scores below are used to determine acceptable levels of fitness in varying age groups and genders.

Age	20-29	20-29	30-39	30-39	40-49	40-49	50-59	50-59
Gender	M	F	M	F	M	F	M	F
Excellent	36+	30+	30+	27+	24+	22+	21+	19+
Above Average	29-35	21-29	22-29	20-26	17-23	15-21	13-20	11-19
Average	22-28	15-20	17-21	13-19	13-16	11-14	10-12	7-10
Below Average	17-21	10-14	12-16	8-12	10-12	5-10	7-9	2-6
Poor	16-	9-	11-	7-	9-	4-	6-	1-

 

Below is an example of a periodic evaluation chart:

Date	Bench Press	Leg Press	Barbell Curl	Push Ups
3-01-21	.00-.68	300	100	16
3-15-21	.69-.78	325	110	20
4-01-21	.79-.98	350	120	24
4-15-21	.99-1.19	375	125	31
5-1-21	+1.2	400	125	36

 

On the mountain, we need our body to perform without exception. That begins with training in the gym. My hope is that the Muscular Strength and Endurance Testing is going to help you to determine how much weight, how many sets, how many reps in each set that you should be able to safely lift while training for your hunt. The style to which you lift will be determined on individual goals and preferred training styles. Hiring a personal trainer will help you to determine where to start or how to re-vamp your current exercise program.

*Be sure to consult your physician prior to beginning any exercise program.