Edmond Chan

How fit can I get in a month? (Part 1)

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Photo by Victor Freitas on Unsplash

It’s time for another challenge and life experiment. They always seem to come back to fitness.

I’ve been running about 15 miles a week for a few months now but not really seeing a difference to the belly, so I started to think about trying a different approach. I was thinking about how fit is it possible to get in one month?

What do we mean by ‘fit’? A Google search led me to a few interesting articles. This post will feature three of these articles and pick out the tests and metrics I’ll focus on:

  1. How fit are you? See how you measure up (Mayo Clinic)
  2. 10 Standards to Assess Your Fitness Level: Before you stamp yourself “in shape,” make sure you can pass these fitness tests (Men’s Health)
  3. Six Ways To Test Your Overall Fitness (Coach Mag)

Mayo Clinic

Here’s the one from the Mayo Clinic: How fit are you? See how you measure up

This article talks about measuring yourself against these standards:

(BTW I’ve written “Do this” next to the measures I’m going to use in the experiment):

  1. Resting heart rate (Do this)
  2. Fastest time to run 1.5 miles (Do this)
  3. Number of press-ups to fatigue (Do this)
  4. Sit up test – max number in a minute (Do this)
  5. Flexibility – sit and reach test (Do this)
  6. Waist circumference (Do this)
  7. BMI (Do this)

Men’s Health

Here’s the article from Men’s Health: 10 Standards to Assess Your Fitness Level: Before you stamp yourself “in shape,” make sure you can pass these fitness tests

The 10 standards of fitness MH lists are:

  1. Bench pressing 1.5x your body weight. For me that’s 120kg which is tough. My PB is around 85kg, which the article says is ‘Ordinary’. I don’t have access to gym at the moment, so I will leave this test for now and focus on the similar test of maximum pushups.
  2. Run 1.5 Miles in 10 Minutes. The article says 12mins and above is ‘Slow’, which is 8min/miles. I run around 9.30min/miles for a 4 mile run, so according to this metric and MH’s standard, I’m definietly slow! (Do this)
  3. Touch the Rim. I’ll have to find a high thing to jump and touch. (Do this)
  4. Leg-Press 2.25 Times Your Weight. My PB is 130kg so well short of this currently. Like with the bench press test above, I don’t have access to a gym at the moment, so I’ll focus on the similar bodyweight squat test below.
  5. Swim 700 Yards in 12 Minutes. Unfortunately, the pools are closed around here because of COVID restrictions.
  6. Do 40 Pushups. I think the maximum press-ups to fatigue in the Mayo article above is more interesting.
  7. Measure Up. This is your waist circumference divided by your hip/butt measurement. (Do this)
  8. Run 300 Yards Sub 1 Minute. Not sure where I’d find a flat 300 yard bit of track. That’s 275m. I’ll think about this one a bit more.
  9. Touch Your Toes. Similar to the Sit and Reach in the Mayo Clinic article above. (Do this)
  10. Toss a Basketball 75 Feet Kneeling. Not sure how to replicate this.

Coach Mag

And finally, here’s an article from Coach Mag: Six Ways To Test Your Overall Fitness

The 6 standards of fitness they recommend as a measure are:

  1. Plank. More than 2min is Excellent (Do this)
  2. Bodyweight Squat. 50 or more is Excellent (Do this)
  3. Press-ups. 50 or more is Excellent (Do this)
  4. 1km run. 3min or less is Excellent (Do this)
  5. 500m row. 1min 30 sec or less is Excellent (Do this)
  6. Pull-ups. 12 or more is Excellent (Do this)

So the tests I’m going to do and try to improve on are:

  1. Resting heart rate (Do this)
  2. Fastest time to run 1.5 miles (Do this)
  3. Number of press-ups to fatigue (Do this)
  4. Sit up test – max number in a minute (Do this)
  5. Flexibility – sit and reach test (Do this)
  6. Waist circumference (Do this)
  7. BMI (Do this)
  8. Run 1.5 Miles in 10 Minutes. The article says 12mins and above is ‘Slow’, which is 8min/miles. I run around 9.30min/miles for a 4 mile run, so according to this metric and MH’s standard, I’m definitely slow! (Do this)
  9. Measure Up. This is your waist circumference divided by your hip/butt measurement. (Do this)
  10. Touch the Rim. I’ll have to find a high thing to jump and touch. (Do this)
  11. Touch Your Toes. Similar to the Sit and Reach in the Mayo Clinic article above. (Do this)
  12. Plank. More than 2min is Excellent (Do this)
  13. Bodyweight Squat. 50 or more is Excellent (Do this)
  14. 1km run. 3min or less is Excellent (Do this)
  15. 500m row. 1min 30 sec or less is Excellent (Do this)
  16. Pull-ups. 12 or more is Excellent (Do this)

In the next post in this series, I’m going to measure where I am for each of the tests in the previous section above.

What tests would you do for yourself? How fit do you think you are right? Let me know in the comments below!