8 ways other than heart rate to measure your fitness
To manage something you need to be able to measure it, even your fitness. Therefore, to know how your body is reacting during fitness exercises, you need to adopt some ways that will help you monitor different health factors. You could be familiar with the tools that measure heart rate, however, it is not the only factor that can talk about your body’s responsiveness to being active. In this article, we will introduce 8 ways other than heart rate to measure your fitness.
1- VO2 max
Your VO2 max is the effectiveness of your body to use oxygen while exercising. It is considered a better factor than the heart rate as it can indicate the point in which the body cannot work harder or make more efforts.
2- Body composition
While body compositions are usually used to track the fat and lean mass in a person’s body (usually before or after a diet), it is not only about that. It can also tell you about levels of bone mass, subcutaneous fat, water mass, visceral fat, and other factors. Lower percentages of fat mean a healthier body. So if you do a body composition test, make sure that look at the levels of fat you have in your body and work on lowering them if needed, and on improving your muscle mass.
3- Deep sleep
Sleeping does not mean you get enough deep sleep. Deep sleep is the sleep phase that helps you wake up energized and refreshed as during it your heartbeat, brain waves, and breathing slow down. Furthermore, being sleep deprived can lead to physiological changes in the body which makes exercising more difficult and negatively affect your endurance.
4- Speed
Human beings are not made in a way that makes them fast, however, history has proved the opposite. Speed can be a signal for optimal fitness, therefore, fast people build better levels of fitness.
5- Strength
Strength is an indicator of fitness and is considered the best way to measure it. Keep a log of how many repetitions you can perform while doing strength workouts such as how many squats, or overhead press. The more repetitions you can do to stronger your body is, and the better you can perform daily tasks and pick heavier objects.
6- Endurance
Opposite to speed, humans are designed to have good endurance. Endurance is the ability to hold longer while doing an activity. This means being able to do something difficult for a longer time, such as being active. The longer you can stay in an activity or difficult act, the better is your fitness.
7- Productivity
Being productive comes from being healthy and energetic. Therefore, tracking your productivity level when it comes to being active (tracking the duration of every exercise, how many exercises or repetitions you can achieve, etc.) can be an indicator of a healthy fitness level.
8- Happiness level
Being active affects your moods and mental health. Therefore someone who is performing their workouts well, will gain the psychological benefits and feel happier and less stressed.
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