In order to stay motivated in your fitness journey it’s very important to make specific goals with timeframes.  They don’t have to be huge goals of losing 50lbs or running a marathon, even a small goal is still an important goal as long as it is important to you.  Goals as small as being able to do 10 push-ups off your toes, jog for 5 minutes without stopping, or lose 1 inch off of your waist are a great place to start.  When I ask people why they work out, a lot of the common answers are: to lose weight, to get stronger, or to get healthier.  Yes, these will all come while participating in a regular fitness routine, but how much weight do you want to lose? How strong do you want to get? And how will you know when you are healthier?

Even a fitness addict like me has to set specific goals to stay focused on my training and be able to push myself in my workouts.  Right now I’m working on being able to do 5 pull-ups without stopping, (I can be honest, I have never been able to do them and it bugs me!), improve my vertical jump height for basketball, and improve my hamstring flexibility.  Now although I have built my workouts with these goals in mind, this is not all I work on.  I tested my pull-up strength, my jump height (lower body power), and hamstring flexibility January 1st and check in on my progress every 3 weeks, then adjust my program accordingly.  It important to make sure you set specific goals but just as important to test yourself, and then set a realistic time frame to re-test.

Here are some examples of assessments you can easily do on yourself:

Push-up test: count how many you can complete with good form (testing upper body and core strength)

Plank test: time how long you can hold a plank position with good form (tests for core strength and stability)

Treadmill endurance test: get on the treadmill and jog for 3 mins to warm-up, then go up to level 6 (for beginners) and level 8 (for more advanced), and time how long you can run for without a break.

Hamstring/trunk flexibility: stand with feet shoulder width apart and while keeping legs straight, bend forward from the waist.  With arms straight measure how far the tip of your index finger is from the floor.

Other assessments could include taking measurements of your waist, hips, arms, chest etc., pull-up test, wall-sit test etc.

BE SURE TO CHOOSE SELF ASSESSMENTS TESTS RELATED TO YOUR PERSONAL FITNESS OR WEIGHT LOSS GOALS!

Email Michelle@CORE-Condition.com for more self-assessment ideas or more detail about the assessments mentioned in this article.

Michelle Roots BA Kin, CSCS, PES

www.CORE-Condition.com