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Understanding and Improving Your Cardiovascular Fitness
Measure and Track Your Cardio Fitness By Paige Waehner Paige Waehner Paige Waehner is a certified personal trainer, author of the "Guide to Become a Personal Trainer"; and co-author of "The Buzz on Exercise & Fitness." Learn about our editorial process Updated on August 20, 2019 Reviewed Verywell Fit articles are reviewed by nutrition and exercise professionals. Reviewers confirm the content is thorough and accurate, reflecting the latest evidence-based research.
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Content is reviewed before publication and upon substantial updates. Learn more. by Tara Laferrara, CPT Reviewed by
Tara Laferrara, CPT Tara Laferrara is a certified NASM personal trainer, yoga teacher, and fitness coach.
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She also created her own online training program, the TL Method. Learn about our Review Board Print Verywell / Ryan Kelly Table of Contents View All Table of Contents Measuring Your Cardio Fitness Treadmill Tests 3-Minute Step Test Rockport Walk Test Improving Cardio Fitness Cardio fitness measures how well your body can perform a rhythmic, dynamic activity at a moderate to high intensity for extended periods of time. While cardio exercise is great for burning calories and losing weight, it also improves your cardiovascular fitness. Your cardio fitness refers to how well your heart, lungs, and organs consume, transport, and use oxygen throughout your workout.
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Your overall fitness depends on the relationship between your cardiovascular system, respiratory system, and skeletal system. When all of these systems work together efficiently, you increase fitness.
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The only way to teach these systems to work together is to practice working out consistently. Cardio workouts are one tool in the battle against inactivity and obesity, but the benefits extend throughout your life.
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The more fit you are, the more you can handle things like keeping up with the kids, doing long days of yard work, or other household projects. Measuring Cardio Fitness To know your level of fitness, you need to measure it.
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One way is to simply track your own workouts. Keep track of the activity you do, how long you do it, and how hard you're working.
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You can then look for trends. You can use a heart rate monitor to make sure you're working in your target heart rate zone or you can pay attention to your rate of perceived exertion. Use a scale of 1 to 10 to match you how you feel at different levels of intensity.
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Exercising at an easy pace would be a level 2 or 3. If you're sprinting all-out, that would be closer to a 10. By doing the same workouts for a while and tracking these elements, you'll see that you're able to go longer and harder as time goes on.
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More complex tests appeal to veteran exercisers, professional athletes, or people who like to compete in races. Tests can give you an accurate calculation of things like your VO2 max, which is the maximum volume of oxygen your body can consume and use. These tests can also help you figure out your maximum heart rate, which is an important part of all major target heart rate zone calculations.
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Some fitness bands and smartwatches that measure resting and exercise heart rates have fitness tests and scores built-in. For example, Fitbit models with heart rate monitoring give a cardio fitness score.
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Garmin GPS sports watches and some of their fitness bands will report VO2 max. You can do a three-minute step test or a Rockport walk test without any complex equipment. Try taking one or both of these tests every few weeks to see how you're doing.
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It can be motivating when you see those numbers change. Having something tangible to look at is often more powerful than just knowing it in your mind.
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Treadmill Tests Treadmill tests can determine your cardiovascular fitness. These are usually administered by a professional at a gym or a lab and may involve working up to a very high intensity.
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The graded exercise test involves a long series of intervals on the treadmill while monitoring blood pressure and heart rhythms. The Bruce protocol test also involves working on a treadmill while your heart rate, blood pressure, and perceived exertion are monitored. Both of these are tests are accurate but may be costly.
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There are other tests you can do on your own that don't involve EKG machines or blood pressure monitors. The 3-Minute Step Test The three-minute step test is one of the simplest methods.
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With this test, you use a 12-inch step and a metronome, stopwatch, or metronome app for your mobile phone. You step up and down to the metronome for three minutes, then sit down and take your heart rate for one full minute, counting each beat. It's great to use a heart rate monitor or heart rate app so you can actually see each beat. Check the charts below for your ratings.
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Ratings for Women Based on Age 18-25 26-35
36-45
46-55
56-65
65+ Excellent
52-81
58-80
51-84
63-91
60-92
70-92 Good
85-93
85-92
89-96
95-101
97-103
96-101 Above Average
96-102
95-101
100-104
104-110
106-111
104-111 Average
104-110
104-110
107-112
113-118
116-121
116-121 Below Average
113-120
113-119
115-120
120-124
119-127
123-126 Poor
122-131
122-129
124-132
126-132
129-135
128-133 Very Poor
135-169
134-171
137-169
137-171
141-174
135-155
Ratings for Men Based on Age 18-25 26-35
36-45
46-55
56-65
65+ Excellent
50-76
51-76
49-76
56-82
60-77
59-81 Good
79-84
79-85
80-88
97-93
86-94
87-92 Above Average
88-93
88-94
88-95
95-101
97-100
94-102 Average
95-100
96-102
100-105
103-111
103-109
104-110 Below Average
102-107
104-110
108-113
113-119
111-117
114-118 Poor
111-119
114-121
116-124
121-126
119-128
121-126 Very Poor
124-157
126-161
130-163
131-159
131-154
130-151
The Rockport Walk Test The Rockport walk test is even simpler than the others. For this, you warm up and then walk a mile as fast as you can, either on the treadmill or outside. You record your heart rate and workout time and enter your results into a Rockport 1-mile walk calculator to see where you rank.
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It's best to do this test on a track so you know exactly how far you're going. Improving Cardio Fitness Improving your cardio fitness is simple, if not always easy to do. The way to get better at cardio is to do it on a regular basis.
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Consistency is how you build endurance and fitness and there are a variety of ways to do that, including the following. Steady-State Training This type of cardio involves running, walking, using the elliptical, or doing some other cardio activity at a moderate pace for 20 or more minutes. You build endurance in your entire body as well as your heart and lungs to be able to last longer during cardio. Start with what you can manage, even if it's less than 20 minutes.
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Add a few minutes to each workout so you're going longer and longer while keeping a moderate pace. Once you can work out continuously for 30 minutes you can start working on different levels of intensity. Interval Training This involves going fast or hard and then backing off to recover, repeating these intervals for the duration of the workout.
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Interval training can help you build endurance more quickly than steady state training, especially if you exert yourself far above your comfort zone, at about a level 9 on the perceived exertion scale. Doing an interval workout one or two times a week can boost your endurance and your calorie burn. Even better, these workouts are often shorter and fit into a busy schedule.
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Mix and Match One of the best ways to boost fitness is mixing both steady-state and interval workouts throughout the week. Too much interval training can cause injury or overtraining and too much steady-state can be boring. If you're a beginner, start three or four workouts a week and focus on two steady-state workouts such as a basic endurance workout and one interval routine, such as a beginner interval workout.
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A Word From Verywell Being fit is all about being able to handle everything in your life with endurance and energy. Working on your cardio fitness each week is a great way to make all your other activities seem easier. Sources Verywell Fit uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles.
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Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. Riebe D, Ehrman JK, Liguori G, Magal M. ACSMs Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer; 2017.
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By Paige Waehner
Paige Waehner is a certified personal trainer, author of the "Guide to Become a Personal Trainer," and co-author of "The Buzz on Exercise & Fitness." See Our Editorial Process Meet Our Review Board Share Feedback Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! What is your feedback?
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Other Helpful Report an Error Submit Related Articles How to Make Your Home Cardio Workout Worthwhile Find Your Fitness Level With a 1-Mile Walk Test Improving High-Intensity Endurance With Lactate Threshold Training How to Use Target Heart Rate Zones for Exercise How to Burn More Calories on a Treadmill Why You Should Add Cardio to Your Workout Routine Fitness Workout Program to Try for First Time Exercisers The Value of VO2 Max Testing in Athletes Why the 12-3-30 Treadmill Workout is Taking Over Your Social Media Feed How to Use the Talk Test to Monitor Your Exercise Intensity The Truth About Your Fat-Burning Zone for Weight Loss Simple Tests to Measure Your Fitness Level at Home 6 Weeks to Fitness for Absolute Beginners What Is Moderate-Intensity Exercise and How Much Do You Need? Use Target Heart Rate to Maximize Your Workouts Outdoor Cycling Workouts for All Levels When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests.
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