3 Essential Tests To Conduct Before Starting An Exercise Regime

You’ve made a decision to start living a healthier life and to begin taking better care of yourself. Naturally, this means you have to start exercising regularly. If this is something you haven’t done before, it’s easy to think you can just jump straight into things. As eager as you might be, you need to stop and prepare yourself for your new exercise regime. This begins by running a few tests that will help you identify any potential issues that could impact your workouts. Likewise, the tests should help you figure out if it is safe for you to exercise or not.

Here are the essential tests to conduct:

Fitness Tests

Technically, this includes lots of different tests under the same banner. Fitness tests are exactly as they sound; tests to see how fit you are. They can come in different varieties but are mostly split into two categories:

• Strength tests
• Cardiovascular endurance tests

A strength test can consist of a push-up test where you see how many you can do in one go. Head online to compare your results to others and it indicates how strong you might be. This helps you put realistic expectations on what you should start doing in the gym. 

Cardiovascular endurance tests will help you understand how fit you are aerobically. There’s a 1-mile test most people use, and the results can be found online and compared once again. If you are way below average, it shows you you need to work on improving your cardio – which will be good for your overall health. 

Flexibility Tests

Similarly, you need to conduct flexibility tests to see which muscles are the tightest in your body. This is also a good way of identifying any possible restrictions when you exercise. For instance, if stretching your shoulder causes pain, you might have an issue in the joint that should be seen before you start an exercise program. 

There are loads of stretch tests you can do, and the internet is once again a fantastic resource for you to look at. You can find loads of videos that will help you do the stretches as well. 

ECG Test

This is the most serious of all the tests as you are recording the electrical activity of the heart. As noted on dralasady.com.au, this is often referred to as an exercise stress test. In essence, you are hooked up to a device that measures your heart rate and tracks the rhythm. It will assess if your heart is beating normally and if there are any irregularities. 

The reason this is so vital is that it can detect concerns when you are exercising. It may identify that your heart is put under extreme stress when exercising and it can’t handle vigorous bouts of activity. By undergoing the test, you figure this out before something bad happens. 

Testing never sounds fun, but it’s an integral part of starting your fitness journey. Make sure you test yourself to see what needs to be addressed before you start exercising regularly.