Fitness Testing Guide: Simple Tests for Aerobic Fitness, Strength and Balance

A good home fitness check covers aerobic capacity, strength and balance, because each predicts health outcomes in research: aerobic fitness most strongly, then grip and leg strength, then simple balance and floor-rise tests. Run the same few tests every few months and track your own trend. The links with mortality are observational. This page is not medical advice.

Not medical advice. Maximal or near-maximal tests stress the heart. If you are inactive, older or have a health condition, get clearance before testing hard.

Exercise physiologist Andy Galpin, in his Huberman Lab guest series, argues for testing several fitness qualities rather than one. The battery below follows that idea, using tests with published outcome data.

The battery at a glance

Aerobic fitness

The American Heart Association has made the case that cardiorespiratory fitness is “a potentially stronger predictor of mortality than established risk factors such as smoking, hypertension, high cholesterol, and type 2 diabetes mellitus.” Lab tests measure VO2 max directly; field tests estimate it. Whatever you choose, keep the route, surface and conditions the same each time.

If you use heart rate to set test or training intensity, note that the old 220-minus-age formula is not reliable. A meta-analysis of 351 studies and 18,712 people, checked in a lab study of 514 adults, found 208 - 0.7 x age fitted better, and that 220 - age underestimates maximum heart rate in older adults. For training it, see VO2 max training.

Grip strength

Use a hand dynamometer and a consistent protocol. In international norms from 2,405,863 adults, average grip peaked at ages 30-39 at 49.7 kg for men and 29.7 kg for women. The grip strength test guide covers the method and norms in detail.

Sit-to-rise and one-leg stance

• Sit-to-rise: In the sit-to-rise study, you start with 5 points for sitting down and 5 for standing up, and lose a point for each hand or knee support, for a score of 0 to 10.
• One-leg stance: Stand on one leg for 10 seconds without support. In the one-leg stance study, 20.4% of adults aged 51-75 could not.

Both tests come from clinic cohorts of middle-aged and older adults, so they are most informative in that age range. The stability training guide covers how to improve them.

How to use your results

• Compare with yourself first: A change over months is more meaningful than any single score.
• Fix the weakest link: If one quality lags, shift training toward it; the exercise and recovery guide covers balancing cardio, strength and recovery.
• Do not over-read the hazard ratios: They describe groups, not individuals.

Limits of the evidence

The outcome studies are observational and used lab or clinic protocols, so home versions add measurement error. Floor-rise and balance data come mainly from single-clinic cohorts aged over 50.