There has been a great deal of concern in recent years about the levels of physical fitness of many young people. Adult obesity rates have almost quadrupled in the last 25 years. Now 22% of Britons are obese and three-quarters are overweight. The number of obese children has tripled in 20 years. 10% of six year olds are obese, rising to 17% of 15 year olds. Research has shown that obesity can lead to health problems, including arthritis, heart disease and diabetes. One way to help to ensure that these problems do not arise is to improve people's physical fitness levels by taking regular exercise.
Testing Physical Fitness
A key concept in testing physical fitness is that of a person's pulse rate and, in particular, how quickly this returns to normal after excessive exercise. It is important that the pulse rate returns to normal after strenuous exercise, otherwise the heart is put under continuous stress.
Gallagher and Brouha Test
In this test, the exerciser steps onto and off a bench (or step) of height 18 inches for boys, and 16 inches for girls, at a
rate of 30 steps per minute for 4 minutes. The exerciser continues for as long as possible up to the four minutes.
In each case the number of beats in the half minute noted, say p1, p2 and p3.
The fitness index is evaluated from
where T is the duration of the exercise in seconds, and p1, p2 and p3 are the measured pulse beats in each ½ minute.
More information about the need for physical fitness can be found here.
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Just for Fun
Use the Gallagher and Brouha fitness test to determine your own physical fitness index and what grade of fitness you are currently at.