You owe it to yourself to make fitness a priority! While you might feel pristine, your body might be telling you otherwise. It’s important to keep track of a few vitals as it has a direct bearing on your strength, endurance and flexibility. Your fitness score is an indicator of how well your body is coping with the physical demands of everyday life. It’s the body’s way of warning you of underlying health conditions. For instance, are heaving your way up the stairs? That’s a sign right there!

Calculating your Fitness Score

Figuring out your fitness score simply means determining your fitness level based on several parameters such as BMI, resting heart rate and physical endurance in relation to your age and sex - Making sure they are in check. If you are using our fitness tracker, make sure to wear your tracker when you active and while you’re sleeping for best heart rate estimates.

We’ve listed  5 parameters get you started, rate yourself from 1-5 for each. The average will give you your fitness score, 1 being very poor and 5 being excellent. Keep in mind that this is by no mean a medically certified method of determining your fitness level. Look at it is an encouragement to get you motivated to a fitter lifestyle. For a comprehensive assessment of your fitness levels, consult a medical practitioner! 

1. Body Mass Index (BMI)

The measure of body fat, according to your height and weight, gives you the BMI number. It is used to know whether you are maintaining a healthy weight basis your height. BMI is calculated by dividing your weight in kilograms by the square of your height in meters. The normal range of BMI varies between 18 and 25

Remember, BMI doesn’t take into account whether the weight is due to fat or muscle mass. So usually, muscle builders, high-performance athletes, and pregnant women don’t take it into account.

However, it’s a great way to see whether you have a healthy weight or not. Morbid obesity is present in over 5% of the Indian population. This population then is at increased risk of diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart diseases.

2. Aerobic Fitness: Heart Rate

For most adults, a healthy heart rate lies between 60 to 100 beats per minute. You can simply check your pulse at your wrist, by placing two fingers between your bone and the tendon over the radial artery. Count the beats for 15 seconds and multiply this by 4 to get the heart rate/minute.

You could also calculate your target heart rate zone, which is a measure of the increase in your heart rate when you do moderately intense activities. Aim for a 50% to 70% increase, to give a good workout to your heart and lungs. This, however, depends on age.

Make sure your exercise is intense enough, but do not overexert.

3. Body Fat Percentage

Our body mass is made up of 4 elements: bone, muscle, water, and fat. It isn’t that body fat is always an unhealthy symptom. A certain amount of body fat is required for insulation and storage of essential minerals. Excess of it can lead to obesity-related diseases like stroke, heart disease, type II diabetes and more.

The ideal body fat percentage for men and women differs. It also depends on age. According to a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, body fat guidelines according to sex and age are as follows:

Notice that men usually have lower body fat to lean tissue ratio when compared to women, which results in different fat percentages. Body fat percentage can be measured by a skin fold test or a body fat monitor. There are other methods too, like dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) or hydrostatic weighing.

4. Sit and Reach Test

Check out your flexibility with this test, which measures the strength of your lower back and hamstring muscles. You have average flexibility if you can reach your toes and much more if you can reach beyond that. However, if you are unable to touch your toes, it means you need a solid plan to work on your hamstring muscles and lower back flexibility.

5. Muscular Endurance Test

A great way to test your muscular strength and endurance is through push-ups. In case you are just starting out, do modified push-ups on your knees or else carry on with classic push-ups.

• Lie face down on the floor, with palms next to your shoulder and elbows bent
• Keep your back straight and push up your arms until they are fully extended
• Lower the body till your chin touches the floor
• Repeat till you need to rest.

The following counts are generally considered indicators of good fitness levels.

If your numbers aren’t up to speed, there is always room for improvement. Fitness trackers are a great way to keep track of your progress and ace your fitness scores. So, let’s get cracking, shall we?