Fitness for Older Adults

Charting Progress

It can be very motivating to chart your progress. These simple tests measure endurance, lower-body power, strength, and balance. Test yourself before starting to exercise to get a baseline score.

For endurance exercises, see how far you can walk in exactly six minutes. Write down how far you walked — in feet, blocks, laps, miles, number of times you walked up and down a long hallway, or whatever is convenient for you. Test and record your scores each month.

For lower-body strength, time yourself as you walk up a flight of stairs as fast as you can safely. Test and record your scores each month.

For upper-body strength exercises, record how much weight you lift and how many times you lift that weight.

For balance exercises, time yourself as you stand on one foot, without support, for as long as possible. Stand near something sturdy to hold onto in case you lose your balance. Repeat the test while standing on the other foot. Test and record your scores each month.

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