1.                 Stretching

2.                 Fitness Testing At Home - Sit Up Test

3.                 Fitness Testing At Home - Push Up Test

4.                 Fitness Testing At Home - Vertical Jump Test

5.                 Fitness Testing At Home - Handgrip Strength Test

6.                 Fitness Testing At Home - Sprint or Speed Test

7.                 Fitness Testing At Home - Squat Test

8.                 Fitness Testing At Home - Step Test

9.                 Circuit Training

10.            Speed Training

11.            Heart Rate Monitor Training

12.            Warm Up & Cool Down

Stretching

 Why stretching is important

Before you try any of the myriad facilities on offer, you need to warm up. A gym staff member can advise you on how.

Stretching improves your muscles' range of motion and helps keep them long. That's important because they tend to shorten as you get older, making you creaky and a figure of fun for badly dressed skateboarding teenagers. It's also important because an injury to a tendon or ligament could leave it permanently stretched, which raises the likelihood of a recurrent injury.

Ideally, you should do so for at least five minutes. Get some help to develop a routine involving stretching, a nifty yoga move called the Sun Salutation, followed by a few minutes on a bike or treadmill

  Sun Salutation
(surya namaskar)

Surya Namaskar, the Sun Salutation, is a series of 12 postures performed in a single, graceful flow. Each movement is coordinated with the breath. Inhale as you extend or stretch, and exhale as you fold or contract. The Sun Salutation builds strength and increases flexibility. Different styles of yoga perform the Sun Saluation with their own variations. However, the flow presented below covers core steps used in most styles.

For the series below, a single round consists of two complete sequences: one for the right side of the body and the other for the left.

On days when you think you have no time for yoga, try and do at least one or two rounds of the Sun Salutation. You'll feel the difference.

Fitness Testing At Home - Sit Up Test

Sit Ups

How many sit-ups can you do in 1 minute? Count how many you can do in one minute and then check the chart below for your rating. 

Starting Position: Lie on the floor with your knees bent, feet flat. Your hands should rest on your thighs.

Technique: Squeeze your stomach, push your back flat and raise high enough for your hands to touch the tops of your knees. Don't pull with you neck or head and keep your lower back on the floor.  

1 Minute Sit Up Test (Men)

1 Minute Sit Up Test (Women)

Fitness Testing At Home - Push Up Test 

Push Up Test

How many can you do? Men should use the standard "military style" pushup position with only the hands and the toes touching the floor. Women have the additional option of using the "bent knee" position. To do this, kneel on the floor, hands on either side of the chest and keep your back straight. Do as many push ups as possible until exhaustion. Count the total number of pushups performed. Use the chart below to find out how you rate.

Push Up Test (Men)

Push Up Test (Women)

Fitness Testing At Home - Vertical Jump Test 

• Description / procedure: the athlete stands side on to a wall and reaches up with the hand closest to the wall. Keeping the feet flat on the ground, the point of the fingertips is marked or recorded. The athlete then stands away from the wall, and jumps vertically as high as possible using both arms and legs to assist in projecting the body upwards. Attempt to touch the wall at the highest point of the jump. The difference in distance between the reach height and the jump height is the score. The best of three attempts is recorded.
• Modifications: Jump height can also be measured using a timing mat which measures the time the feet are off the mat. From the time, jump height can be calculated. To be accurate, you must ensure the feet land back on the mat with legs nearly fully extended. Other test modifications are to perform the test with no arm movement (one hand on hip, the other raised above the head) to isolate the leg muscles and reduce the effect of variations in coordination of the arm movements. The test can also be performed off one leg, with a step into the jump, or with a run-up, depending on the relevance to the sport involved.
• Scoring: The jump height Jump is usually recorded as the score in distance. The table below provides a ranking scale for adult athletes based on my observations, and will give a general idea of what is a good score.

There is also a calculation to convert jump height into a power score. This is a formula I have come across, I am not sure about it's accuracy or how it is derived. Power= 2.21*weight*root of jump distance.

• Equipment required: measuring tape or marked wall, chalk for marking wall (or timing mat).
• Advantages: simple and quick to perform.

Handgrip strength test

• Description / procedure: Subject holds the dynamometer in one hand in line with the forearm and hanging by the thigh. Maximum grip strength is then determined without swinging the arm.
• Scoring: The best of two trials for each hand is recorded. The values below (in Kg) give a guide to scores expected for adults. They are the average of the best scores of each hand.

• Equipment required: handgrip dynamometer
• Validity: The validity of this test as a measure of general strength has been questioned, as it does not necessarily represent the strength of other muscle groups.
• Advantages: This is a simple and commonly used test of strength.
• Disadvantages: The dynamometer must be adjusted for hand size, how successfully this is done will affect the accuracy of the measurement.
• Comments: It is also useful to record whether the athlete is left or right handed, as this may help in the interpretation of results.

Sprint or Speed Test

• Description / procedure: The purpose of this test is to determine maximum running speed. It involves running a single maximum sprint over a set distance, with time recorded. The test is conducted over different distances, such as 10, 20, 40 and/or 50 meters or yards, depending on the sport and what you are trying to measure. The starting position should be standardize, starting from a stationary position, with no rocking movements. If you have the equipment (e.g. timing gates), you can measure the time to run each split distances (e.g. 5, 10, 20m) during the same run, and then acceleration and peak velocity can also be determined. It is usual to give the athletes an adequate warm-up and practice first, and some encouragement to continue running hard past the finish line.
• Equipment required: measuring tape or marked track, stopwatch or timing gates, markers.
• Target population: sprinters, team sport athletes.
• Reliability: Reliability is greatly improved if timing gates are used. Also weather conditions and running surface can affect the results, and these conditions should be recorded with the results. If possible, set up the track with a crosswind to minimize the effect of wind.
• Norms: the rating system below is for a 35 m sprint test, I think for Australian team sport players (reference unknown).
   

Squat Test

How many squats can you do? Stand in front of a chair or bench with your feet a shoulders width apart, facing away from it. Squat down and lightly touch the chair before standing back up. A good sized chair is one that makes your knees at right angles when you are sitting. Keep doing this until you're fatigued.

Write down how many squats you can do. After you work out for awhile, take the test again to see how much your lower body strength has improved. 

Squat Test (Men)