January 2009 Fitness Bonus

If you haven’t exercised on a regular basis for more than six months and/or have a lower fitness level, then try the Rockport one-mile walk test instead. It’s a lower intensity test that will still give you an accurate estimation of your cardiorespiratory fitness. Walk the mile as briskly as possible, and, immediately after, count how many times your heart beats in 15 seconds (using a watch or stopwatch) and multiply that number by four. The result is your heart rate, which will be plugged into the equation below, an alternative formula for finding VO2 max.