Here’s a question for ya: when it comes to your fitness, how do you measure progress? Do you step on the scale every day (we hope not), take selfies regularly, or just go by how your clothes fit you? Or are you more type-A — sending away for expensive tech gadgets and gizmos to give you up-to-the-decimal readings of what exactly that third slice of pie did to your left oblique?

No matter which group you fall into, we can’t blame you, because getting a clear picture of your fitness progress is essential to reaching your goals. Knowing your fitness level has tons of benefits: it helps you see how you’re doing overall, gives you insight into the effectiveness of your current routines, shows you areas that you need to improve, and most importantly, it’s great motivation! Because when you know you’re one step closer to your goal, you’re that much happier to keep on trucking towards it!

So to help you save $$$, confusion, and hours of research, we’ve come up with a simple home fitness test that’ll give you the inside scoop on your outside transformation. Any good test will include your muscle strength in your upper body, lower body, and core, your aerobic fitness, and your flexibility. And to do this home fitness test, all you need is a stopwatch, a box, and a ruler. We’re also gonna include some charts to see where the average person falls on the list — but remember, the only person you should be comparing yourself to is who you were yesterday! Ok got all that? Now let’s get testing!

Upper Body
For the upper body fitness test, you’re gonna be doing pushups for one minute. Ladies, you can do them on your knees, just make sure to keep your back straight throughout the entire movement and do as many as you can from your toes before dropping to the knees. As for men, sorry boys, it’s on the toes for you.

Lower Body
This home fitness test requires you to do the dreaded wall-sit for as long as you can. Imagine there’s an invisible chair against the wall and you’re sitting in it. Just go up against any wall or vertical surface, shuffle your feet forward, and slide down ‘till your booty is parallel with the ground, then clench and count! Want to make it tougher? Hold something (like a dumbbell) over your head while you’re at it.

Core
A great core fitness test to get insight into your skill level is the plank. Doesn’t matter who you are or what you look like, the plank reveals all! For this exercise test especially, you want to make sure you’re keeping perfect form: get into a push-up position, drop to your elbows, make sure your elbows are directly under shoulders, fists facing each other, your whole body in one straight line from your head to your feet, push your belly button to your core, squeeze your leg muscles, and keep your chest proud and chin up. Get in this position, hit the timer, and hold it for as long as you can.

Cardio
This next home fitness test on our list is effortless because it involves your resting heart rate (RHR). When we are healthier, our hearts pump more blood with every beat and thus don’t need to pump as hard or fast. But with a weak cardiovascular system, your ticker is going to have to work a whole lot harder. To measure your resting heart rate, place your two fingers on your pulse, either on your neck below your jawline or softly on your wrist. With your stopwatch, record how many beats you feel in 60 seconds. To keep it consistent, do this first thing in the morning before you have any caffeine. The more cardio you do (especially with interval training where you push your heart rate up above 90% Max HR), the more you’ll see your resting heart rate decrease – that’s a good thing!

Flexibility
To get a reading on your flexibility, we’re gonna perform a simple sit-and-reach test. Now, doctors’ offices have handy-dandy machines for performing this test, but we’re gonna show you how to make your own! Grab yourself a box, and tape a ruler hanging over the edge of it. Make sure 7 inches of the ruler are hanging over the box. Then, sit down with your feet pressed up against the box, and slowly reach forward as far as you can, keeping your legs straight.

There you go — this is the essential list of how to test your fitness level at home. How’d you do? Once you’re done taking this simple home fitness test, it’s so important to write your results down, so you can reference your continuing progress. We’ve said it once, and we’ll say it again — getting truly fit and healthy has nothing to do with what ‘the average’ person scores. This is about YOU. Whatever your numbers are, they can always get better with a solid fitness routine.

And everyone at Studio SWEAT onDemand is here to help you do that. Our non-stop virtual workouts give you everything you need to bump those fitness numbers up — a huge selection of classes, a wide variety of sweat-inducing workouts, a whole team of passionate trainers, plus motivation from our worldwide community of members. Check out our 7-Day Free Trial today, and let’s get you on the path to fitness.