Fitness testing in schools

What is physical fitness and how do we test it?

Physical fitness is related to an individual’s capacity to perform activity. The components of physical fitness are often divided into two categories:

health-related fitness: i.e. body composition, aerobic capacity, flexibility, muscular endurance and muscular strength
skilled-related fitness: including agility, balance, anaerobic power and those specific motor skills, such as throwing and catching, required for performing different games and physical activities.

When people talk about “fitness testing” they are commonly referring to tests for health-related fitness. It is these health related components that are important for everyone to develop and maintain for their own personal health. A range of fitness tests can be used to test each component of health-related fitness. These include:

Body composition: height, weight, sum of skinfolds, body mass index (BMI)
Aerobic capacity: treadmill stress test, bicycle ergometer (VO2 max) test, multistage fitness test, 1.6 kilometre run/walk, Coopers 12 minute run
Muscular endurance: curl-up test, push-up test, bench jumps
Muscular strength: basketball throw, pull-ups, push/pull dynamometer, handgrip dynamometer
Flexibility: sit and reach, shoulder stretch, trunk hyperextension.

You may be familiar with a number of these. Some tests are more easily administered in the school situation than others. The tests used in the NSW Schools Fitness and Physical Activity Survey, 1997 were the multistage fitness test for aerobic capacity, the curl-up test for muscular endurance, the basketball throw for muscular strength and the shoulder stretch for flexibility. Note that the survey also tested components of skill-related fitness by assessing students’ mastery of the fundamental motor skills of the run, vertical jump, catch, overhand throw, kick and forehand strike.

What is the purpose of fitness testing?

Whenever we conduct any testing in the school situation it is usually because we want to find out something about a particular aspect of learning. The same is true of fitness testing. There are three main purposes for using fitness tests in schools.

We can use fitness tests and their results to assess student achievement (e.g. What is a student’s level of fitness? How do students perform on tests?)
Fitness tests can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of our school programs (e.g. Have our students’ fitness levels improved as a result of our program?)
We can also include fitness tests as a strategy for teaching and learning about fitness concepts. They can help to develop students’ knowledge and understanding of the benefits and issues of health-related fitness.

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