Take the YMCA 3-minute step test

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

I’ve spoken before about the importance of establishing baselines and checking progress in measurable, reliable ways. I did mine again last night…just because I wanted to know...and it went pretty well. I did the YMCA 3-minute step test, which can be found by going to www.sparklepeople.com. Once there, go to “four fitness tests you can do at home”. One of the tests will be the 3-minute step test and the method will be described. It’s really pretty simple. You need a sturdy box 12 inches high on which you can step up on down at a rate of 96 beats per minute (which is 24 complete steps up and down). www.metronomeonline offers the necessary pacing – 96 beats per minute. Each beat requires a step. Right foot up on beat one, left foot on beat two (now you’re on the box) right foot down on three and left foot down on four. That’s it. Climb up and down for three minutes to this beat and at the end of the three minutes, sit down immediately and take your pulse for one full minute. You’re looking for the total for that minute immediately following the 3-minute stepping – or your recovery heart rate. The test is measuring how quickly your heart rate returns to rest and is a very good indicator of aerobic fitness. If you do regular, aerobic exercise (3 times a week for at least 20 minutes) with your heart rate in its training zone (see older article about determining your training heart rate), you WILL improve and this simple test will demonstrate that improvement.

I did the test on myself when I began writing this blog back in February. I was in okay shape back then and scored pretty well with a recovery heart rate of 74 beats. According to the Y’s rating for men between the ages of 46-55, I had an excellent rating (sparklepeople website has the rating chart), which would be anything between 56-82 beats for one minute. I was at the low end of excellent – maybe an A minus – which wasn’t very satisfying.

I re-took the test last night to see what progress I’d made. I’d already done my run for the day – a one-hour run – not the ideal way to go into the test since my resting heart rate was still up from the effort. Still…I went ahead. After stepping for three minutes, I sat down and found my pulse on the side of my neck and began counting for one minute. It was slowing quickly…a good sign…and when the minute was up, I had only counted to 67!

This is a pretty significant drop as is surely the result of my 6-day a week running regimen and the weight loss. I’m guessing it will be even lower if I check it before instead of after I do a workout.

The point is – it’s easy to establish a baseline and check your progress…and it’s great for your motivation to see the improvement. Do the test. Check your progress. It keeps you working…going…when you think nothing is happening. It is.

Run duration: 60 minutes.

Training Heart Rate: 140.

Calories burned during workout: 1020.