Are You Actually Getting Fitter? — Five test results that show progress beyond body weight.

You put hours into the gym, but are you actually getting fitter? The scale is only one place to look. Fitness originally meant the state or quality of being suitable for a purpose, with the word recorded in the 1570s. That idea matters here: being fit depends on what you want your body to do, whether that means picking up your grandchild, running 5 km in under 18 minutes or deadlifting 300 kg. Ive always been in awe of how simple coach Dan John encourages us to think about fitness in relation to what we need. Your goals are personal, but you can still track measurable progress towards them. Here are five measures that look beyond body weight.

These tests are all designed to asses different things, as mentioned earlier pick the one/s relevant to you and your goals. Measure a start point and not the conditions in which it was measured for instance if your assessing if your squat has got stronger try to squat to the same depth to make it a fair comparison. The five measures are a menu not a checklist you have to complete.

Test 1: probably the most obvious can you lift more weight than previous?

Lifting more weight is the most obvious sign of progress, but it is not the only one. You might increase the maximum weight you can lift, complete more repetitions at a given weight, or perform the same lift with better technique and/or less perceived effort. Record which of these has changed: a heavier maximum lift, more repetitions and better execution tell you different things about how your training is progressing.

Test 2: Has your resting HR dropped?

A downward trend in your resting heart rate can be a sign of improved cardiovascular fitness. The useful comparison is your average baseline over time, rather than an isolated reading. Many smartwatches track resting heart rate and display trends, alongside measures such as heart rate variability (HRV). Use those records as indicators of change, rather than treating a lower number alone as proof that your heart has become stronger.

Test 3: Endurance and Pace Benchmark tests

Are you able to perform a benchmark endurance test at a better pace, is your 1.5 mile run time faster? 2k row erg? 12 min aerobic function test these can all show measurable and tangible changes to cardiovascular fitness and VO2 max.

Test 4: Body Composition Analysis (BIA or Skinfolds)

Utilising tools like bio-impedance  (BIA) is quick and easy like a Seca or InBody machine and help tell more of a story than just body weight alone and can be a great way to measure changes the physical self. Skinfolds are slightly more invasive but can give a clearer indication of where the body in changing. Tracking these can give us a much deeper insight than the scale weight alone which tells a very 1 dimensional story. These tests can add context to body changes, but answer a very different question to that of being able to lift more, run further or jump higher.

Test 5: power tests

A hugely overlooked element of training is power and this is our ability to produce force rapidly. A very simple power test is the vertical jump can you jump higher, if yes you have become more powerful. A cavet this cannot be a box jump as that is a very inaccurate measure of improvement as there is much more of an element of technique. There are even apps that use the camera on your phone to do this and can be a great training tool or test especially if you are training for sports.

The scale tells you about body weight, not the whole story of your fitness. Strength, resting heart rate, endurance, body composition and power give you other ways to track change. Choose the measures that matter to what you want to do, and use them to ask a more useful question: am I becoming better prepared for my own goals? Be fit for the life you want to live, not for someone else’s arbitrary standard of what fitness should look like.