How fit are you?

Before you begin any form of exercise, its important that you run a couple of tests on yourself so you'll know where to start.
Exercise is strenuous and we suggest that before you carry out any exercise, or are starting a regime of exercise, you contact your GP to see if the exercise we are about to discuss is right for you.

Resting Heart Rate.

The first thing is to establish your resting heart rate. This is the speed at which your heart is pumping when your body is not doing anything else. The best time to do this is first thing in the morning, just after you've woken up. Remove your watch (if your wearing one!) and put it where your can see the second hand or counter. Take your left wrist in your right hand and lightly press the tips of your right index and middle fingers into the space just below your thumb. Move your fingers around until you can feel a pulsing sensation - and there you are! Once you can feel the pulse strongly, look at your watch and measure off 15 seconds while, at the same time, counting the number of beats you get from your pulse. Multiply the result by 4 and that is your resting heart rate per minute. Now compare the result with the table below.

Beats per minute

100 - Unfit
90
75 - Average
60
50 - Very Fit

Women's hearts tend to beat slightly faster than a man's. Women can give themselves 5 beats per minute leeway on these figures.
The beats will go down as you get fitter because your heart pumps more blood with each beat and so needs to beat less often to do the same job. Remember that the heart is a muscle, so the fitter you become, the fitter your heart will!

Fitness Testing.

There are two ways that we assess a person's fitness in the Fire Service.

Chester Step Test.
Multi Shuttle Test or Bleep Test as its more commonly known.