7 Exercises You MUST Pass (Or You’re Aging Too Fast)
Everyone thinks they’re fit until they actually have to prove it. In this video, I break down the ultimate fitness test using real fitness benchmarks and standards to show you exactly where your overall fitness stands. If you’ve ever wondered how to be fit, how to get fit, how strong you should be,
Everyone thinks they’re fit until they actually have to prove it. Today, we’re putting that to the test. We brought together four people, different ages and different backgrounds. Not so that you can watch them, but so that you can measure yourself against them. Because the real question isn’t how they perform, but how you would.
How fit are you really? Stepping up to the plate, we have a 30-year-old, which in fitness years basically means he thinks he’s indestructible. We’ll see how long that lasts. A 72-year-old aiming to be a great reminder that age alone doesn’t have to be a limit of what you can do. a 50-year-old, that’s me, with about 15 million people expecting me not to fall flat on my face.
No pressure, and a 53-y old police officer who’s used to showing up when things get tough, which is exactly what these tests are going to do. Now, these aren’t random exercises that you’ll be performing. Each one of them exposes a specific weakness that most people don’t even know they have. And if you can’t pass them, the truth is, you’re just not as fit as you think you are. But this isn’t about calling you out.
It’s about showing you where you stand now so that you know what you have to fix to be better. And the good news is all of these are trainable, so therefore they’re all fixable. So before we get into the ones that some people struggle with, let’s start with one that actually just looks simple. And this is called the single leg wall sit. It tests hip and ankle stability, static strength in those quads, and also muscular endurance.
To set it up, you want your back flat against that wall, your knee bent down at 90°, and one leg lifted off the ground. The goal here is to make sure you can maintain this position for 30 seconds, making sure to test each leg. Now, most of you watching right now are probably thinking, “Yeah, Jeff, that’s not a hard one. I could do that. ” However, 10 seconds in, you start to change your mind.
Remember, the burn here is not just about your quads. It’s testing your hip stability, your knee control, and how well you can maintain position under fatigue. And this is where most people realize it’s just not as easy as it looks. If you can’t hold it for 30 seconds on each of your legs, then you’ve got a problem that you just simply need to address. Remember, this is not a punishment.
It’s information about what needs to be improved. If you’re watching this, would you be able to do this right now? And here’s the honest truth. If you’re experiencing struggle while trying to hold your leg in place, imagine what would happen if you have to move that unstable leg over and over and over again, like when you’re running. We use this test often as a sports physical therapist to test ACL integrity or ACL injury risk because we want to make sure that there’s no lack of stability above and below the knee which can make you more susceptible.
Now, if holding your body in place exposes one series of problems, moving it through space exposes a whole lot more. This is the wall splat test, and this one tells you more about your body than you probably ever wanted to know. Set up facing a wall, toes about one to two inches away, slightly turned out, arms straight overhead, but don’t lean on the wall, and don’t use it for balance. Keep your chest up, your head up, and now sit down into a full squat below parallel. Hold it for a second, and then stand back up.
It looks simple, but it’s not. Because to do this right, you need ankle mobility, hip mobility, extension mobility of the thoracic spine, overhead shoulder mobility, and the ability to control your pelvis and lower back while all of this is happening. If any of these are off, then this breaks down really fast. Right here, you’ll see what limited ankle mobility looks like. not enough dorsif flexion and the body has to find another way to get down, which usually means either cutting the depth short or just losing position trying.
Our 72-year-old actually gets down, but watch the arms. That overhead position starts to drift. And that’s usually coming from a lack of mobility below, in this case, the thoracic spine. Again, if you can’t extend there, then your shoulders can’t stay up, and they’ll naturally be forced into a compensation that looks a lot like this. And even when you do pass, it doesn’t mean that it’s perfect.
I got through it, but I’ll be honest, my lower back wasn’t too happy about it. It immediately seized up and started cramping like crazy because of how hard I was contracting it to keep the proper position of my pelvis. But that’s what happens when the lumbar spine muscles start trying to do the job that the thoracic spine and hips above and below should be doing all along. Now, that exposed how well you can control your body. This next one shows how long you can do it for.
This is the push-up test. And not just any kind of push-up, the hand release push-up. Start face down on the floor, arms extended out overhead. Bring your hands back to just outside your shoulders and press yourself up into a plank. From there, the setup actually ensures your elbows are in the right position with the least amount of strain and stress on your wrists and shoulders, too.
From here, your body stays rigid. Lower your chest all the way down to the floor. Lift your hands briefly and place them back down. And then press up to full extension. It looks basic, but this one adds up fast because now you’re testing upper body strength, muscular endurance, core stability, and your ability to keep going under fatigue.
And this is where things start to separate. For men in their 40s, the numbers 40 unbroken reps. In your 50s, expect about a 5 to 10% drop from that. And then into your 60s and 70s, another 7 to 12% decline per decade. But even in your 70s, we’re still talking about 32 or so push-ups.
It’s a lot, but it’s doable. Younger guys in your 20s and 30s, you should be pushing closer to 50 reps. For women in their 40s, the number is 30 reps with the same general pattern for that 5 to 10% drop in your 50s and another 7 to 12% per decade after that. So, wherever you are right now, you can pretty quickly figure out where you should be. And what you’ll notice here isn’t just who stops first, it’s how they stop.
the hips start to sag, the range of motion shortens, the tempo changes, and the core starts to give out before even the arms do. And all that matters, too, because as always, it’s not just about counting reps, but making them count and doing them the right way. And remember, if you can’t hit the standard, that’s not a failure. It’s an opportunity, right? It’s a clear signal of exactly what you need to focus on to get better and stronger.
And again, because it is trainable, it’s fixable. Now, push-up showed you how long you can keep going. This is going to show you how long you can hold on. Literally, this is the dead arm hang. Grab a bar high enough so that your feet clear the ground.
Your hands should be about shoulder width apart. And instead of just hanging there, depress your shoulders slightly by pulling them away from your ears. This will engage the scapula and provide stability to a joint that’s going to need every bit of it to hold you up there for the next 2 minutes. That’s right, 2 minutes. That’s the target time you’re attempting to reach if you’re a man in your 40s.
For every year after that, you get a 1 second deduction from your expected time. So, our 70-year-old is looking at about a minute and 30 seconds. For our female in her 40s, you’re looking at a minute and 15 seconds as your benchmark. Once again, you still get