Gather your tools

Most often, measures of fitness involve these key areas:

• Aerobic fitness, which involves how well the heart uses oxygen.
• Muscle strength and endurance, which involve how hard and long muscles can work.
• Flexibility, which is how able joints are to move through their full range of motion.
• Body composition, which involves how much fat, bone and muscle are in the body.

To do your assessment, you need:

• A stopwatch or a watch that can measure seconds.
• A cloth measuring tape.
• A scale.
• Someone to help you record your scores and count how many times you repeat something.

You'll also need a pencil or pen and paper to record your scores as you finish each part of the test. You can record your scores in a notebook or journal. Or you can save them in a spreadsheet or another electronic format.