How to measure overall fitness?

joe40

Hi

I am going to ask a question which may not have a definitive answer but I would be interested in hearing people's opinions.

As a 46 year old male what would constitute a reasonable to good level of overall fitness for me?

By overall I mean cardio, strength, flexibility or any other criteria which make up the term fitness that I haven't thought about.

What sort of benchmarks/tests could be used to gauge my current level and what sort of targets should I be aiming for?

I enjoy reading the various posts on this forum and have learned a lot in specific areas - mentored novice forum got me through a marathon in 2012.

However I would be interested in what sort of overall fitness levels I should aim for without concentrating on one aspect such as running and nothing else.

Sorry for the vague question but i would be interested to hear opinions and advice.

shakedown

You could take a look at the Crossfit Open workouts: http://games.crossfit.com/workouts/the-open

Mellor

shakedown wrote: »

You could take a look at the Crossfit Open workouts: http://games.crossfit.com/workouts/the-open

How would he use them as benchmark or measure of fitness?
They are 5 rather difficult workouts, even the scaled versions. I wouldn't recommend for a lifting novice to just jumping into them



@Joe40,
Cardio, strength, flexibility is a very good starting point. But the issue is that a "good level" is very subjective.

Cardio: A 30 min 5 km run is good, a 20min 5km run is also good. How did the marathon go in 2012? The running forum might be able to give a decent guideline target based on your current run times, or the marathon.

Strength: Have a look at http://symmetricstrength.com/
Assess your current strength in one lift from each category. This will compare the lifts to each other for balance. And also rate your lifts for somebody your age and weight. It's not perfect, but it's a good starting point.

Flexibility/Mobility: There are a few movement standards that that would be considered bench marks. Such as a 3rd word squat with feet on the ground, walls slides (shoulder), Hip ASLR. In addition, here's a good video from Transform;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct6lJcYh-Ak

joe40

Thanks a million That is exactly the sort of thing I was looking for. I was doing stronglifts for awhile last summer/Autumn so I have some info on the weights I was able to do at the end.
Back Squat 80 x5
Deadlift 100 x 5
OH press 40 x 5
Bench 60 x 5
row 50 x 5

These would have been at my max And I probably would not have managed 5 sets of 5 for those weights as per the programme but one set would have been doable.

On the symmetric strength website this gave me a score of 45.4 which is in the novice section (I'm quite happy about that)
Pull ups would be difficult at this stage since a few pounds need to go.

I will have a look at the flexibility when I get a chance.

The running is probably the easiest to gauge since so many people of all abilities are running these days.

I fully appreciate this sort of thing is subjective but it is good to have some sort of framework to compare things.

Thanks again

rowanh

LINK

Saw this a while ago, i thought it was good stuff.

joe40

rowanh wrote: »

LINK

Saw this a while ago, i thought it was good stuff.

I have read through the list. managed the sleeping with one pillow, the other 9 might take a bit of work!!

Seriously though, interesting list there are some I probably could with a some practice but i'm a good bit off benching my own bodyweight, or deadlifting 2xbodyweight

I need to either get stronger or lighter - preferably both