Abdominal Fitness Test
Having a strong abdominal core is essential for most sporting activities and as such its always useful to test the fitness of your abdominals.
You can easily test how strong your abs are by taking this simple abdominal fitness test. The goal is perform as many simple abdominal sit ups in one minute as you can.
Start by lying on your back, knees bent, elbows bent, hands gently touching the side of your head. Lift up until your elbows touch your knees, then lower until your shoulder blades touch the mat – repeat. Continue either until you can do no more, or until the minute is up.
Dependent upon your fitness level, you may decide to simply lift your shoulder blades and head 6 - 8 inches off the floor, its essential that you work within your own fitness limits, making a note of what method of sit up you use and how many you can perform.
Whatever method of sit-up you use, its essential that you perform the exercise under control, avoid pulling on your head, or letting your pelvis come off the floor. Focus on using your abdominal muscles to perform the test rather than using poor technique and momentum.
Having a partner assist you with this test will help you with both timing and also counting only the good repetitions. Its far to easy to start with good form and then slowly let poor technique come in. Avoid poor technique by only having your good reps count.
Your timer can also help you by informing you as to how much time you have left, i.e. 30 seconds left then last ten seconds etc. By doing this you will hopefully be able to work at a steady pace for the full minute.
Check the chart below to see how you rate!
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As an example a 32-year old woman manages to do 40 sit ups - according to the chart, this would rate her abdominal strength as good.
