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Home / Exercising / Fitness tests / Endurance tests / Aerobic tests / Harvard step
Harvard step test
Introduction
The Harvard step test is an effective way to assess fitness by measuring your recovery rate.
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What is the point?
What is fitness? There are various ways of measuring it. The Harvard step test uses recovery rate as an indicator - this is important for athletes who have bursts of activity followed by rest periods, such as footballers, rugby players and basketball players.
What do you need?
- Gym bench (45cm high)
- Stop watch
- Assistant
How do you do the test?
- Step up on to a standard gym bench once every two seconds for five minutes (150 steps)
- An assistant can help you keep the required pace
- One minute after finishing, take your pulse (bpm) - this is Pulse 1
- Two minutes after finishing, take your pulse again - this is Pulse 2
- Three minutes after finishing, take your pulse for the final time - this is Pulse 3
- Use the calculator below to determine your level of fitness
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What results you'll get :
By comparing your results over several months, you can get a good gauge of any improvements in your fitness level.
Taking the three pulse measurements, your level of fitness can be determined as follows:
Result = 30000 ? (pulse1 + pulse2 + pulse3)
Normative data for the Harvard Step Test
The following table is for 16 year old athletes.
| Gender |
Excellent |
Above Average |
Average |
Below Average |
Poor |
| Male |
>90 |
80-90 |
65-79 |
55-64 |
<55 |
| Female |
>86 |
76-86 |
61-75 |
50-60 |
<50 |
What is being measured again?
This is a good measure of general cardiovascular fitness.
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