Fit for Work

The Universal (Fit-for-Work) Fitness Test

The Universal Fitness Test is designed to help corporate organisations:

•	measure the risk of absenteeism, presenteeism, workers compensation and staff turnover that comes with employees who are in poor physical condition.

•	encourage employees to keep themselves fit and healthy to the best of their ability

•	determine which staff have the physical competence to do exceptionally demanding work, especially that required in manual handling and elite forces.

In most occupations, people need a minimum amount of strength and aerobic fitness to do the job without breaking down, to do the job that normal fit and healthy people take in their stride. Even sitting on a chair all day requires a certain amount of strength, without which, over the years and decades people become dysfunctional and in pain.

The Fit For Work test is a universal fitness test designed to encourage people to keep themselves fit and healthy to the best of their ability

People who can reach the 'gold standard' are definitely in fit for work condition.

The test is suitable for use by 'regular folks' elite force personnel, school students and sporting teams.

It's an essential medical diagnostic assessment tool for determining health status. A medical check-up that includes parameters like blood pressure, cholesterol, blood glucose is seriously deficient if it doesn't include a test of aerobic fitness, strength and flexibility.

ADMINISTRATION

The test is easy to administer.

The strength tests are the same tests as you'd use to improve your strength at home. The aerobic fitness test requires participants to see how many laps of a 20m course they can complete in five minutes.

It's an adapted version of the 'beep' test. It's a reliable, valid and east to administer test.

It's important you do the tests in the order recommended. Do the 20m run test first, then the feet-held situps and pressups, followed by the squats and arm hang. If you do the squats before the situps you'll compromise your situps' score.

THE TESTS

1.	AEROBIC FITNESS 20m run How many times can you run between two lines 20m apart in 5 minutes. One foot must go beyond the line at the end of each lap. It may take you several attempts to work out the best speed to start off with. You can run, jog or shuffle. If you run out of puff you can slow down to a walk. If you're in very poor metabolic heath, start off with a slow walk and over the weeks and months gradually pick up the pace. Consult your physician if you feel you may be in very poor cardio-vascular health. Warning You must stop if you feel you could be doing yourself grievous bodily harm.

2.	FRONT OF BODY STRENGTH Situps - feet held - maximum consecutive number until you can't do any more - feet held, hands clasping opposite shoulders, coming up so elbows touch the knees, upper back (not head) hitting the ground.

3.	UPPER BODY STRENGTH Pressups - maximum consecutive number until you can't do any more - men on toes, women on lower thighs (not knees). Women make sure you're on the front of your thighs and that your knees, bottom and shoulders are in a straight line.

4.	LEG STRENGTH Squat - number of times you can squat down so your backside is midway between your knees and your heels and stand-up (straight) until you can't do any more. Start standing up.

5.	HAND STRENGTH Arm hang - start timing once you're in the hanging position. Hang with palms facing away from you. A large proportion are unable to support their own weight at all so be careful to be ready to land on your feet if your hands fail to support you.

Do the situps, pressups and squats to exhaustion. No stopping for a breather. Once you stop you're out.

SUPPLEMENTARY TESTS

1. Percent body fat

The gold standard for measuring body composition is percent body fat. In the age of obesity, it's important that you keep track of your weight and percent body fat on a daily basis. A set of digital scales, preferably one that is Bluetooth compatible is a must have piece of bathroom equipment tool and stepping onto it an essential part of your morning routine.

Award	% body fat Men	% body fat Women
Platinum	<14	<24
Diamond	<16	<26
Emerald	<18	<28
Gold	<20	<30
Silver	<22	<32
Bronze	<24	<34
Green	<26	<36
Amber	<28	<38
Red	<30	<40
Black	>30	>40

2. Flexibility

Two supplementary tests of flexibility will be useful in predicting whether you are at risk of lower back pain - or providing you with clues as to why you already have it.

- how close you can get to touching your toes with your wrists and

- your ability to sit up straight, with legs crossed and hands clasped behind your back.

a. Sit and reach - hamstring flexibility

In a sitting position, with legs outstretched in front of you, see how far down past your toes you can reach with your fingers. Keep legs straight and backs of knees on the floor. Score 4 if you can get your fingers to your toes (F), 5 for the first knuckle, 6 for the second and 7 if you can get to the palms (P). Score 10 if you can get your wrists past your toes (W).

Poor							Good
Can't touch toes	F			P			W
0	4	5	6	7	8	9	10


Score
Score

b. Ability to sit up straight - buttock flexibility

With legs crossed and hands clasped behind the back, see if you can sit up straight without falling over.

Your score is based on the worst of the scores for each side.

Falling over backwards on either side scores 0.

Poor				Good
Fall over when hands clasped behind back	Just			Easy
0	7	8	9	10


Score
Score

UNIVERSAL FITNESS TEST AWARD

The award is based on the lowest points scored for a particular test item. For example if you're a woman and do 38 laps of the 20mrun, 30 pressups, 15 situps, 25 squats and hang onto the bar for 30 seconds, the 15 situps count as the lowest score and you qualify for the 'green' award.

Highlight your best individual scores. To signify your Fitness Award, place a tick in the award box equal to the lowest score you achieved for the individual tests (as per the example below). Your award is based on the lowest score you achieve.

The Universal Fitness Test will test the unfittest and the fittest of the fit.

Level	Award	20m run		Pressups	Situps	Squats	Arm hang		Award
		Men	Women				Men	Women
10	Platinum	55	52	70	70	70	120	80
9	Diamond	53	49	60	60	60	90	60
8	Ruby	50	46	50	50	50	70	50
7	Emerald	45	43	40	40	40	50	40
6	Gold	40	38	30	30	30	40	35
5	Silver	38	36	25	25	25	35	30
4	Bronze	36	34	20	20	20	30	25
3	Green	32	30	15	15	15	25	20
2	Amber	26	24	10	10	10	20	15
1	Red	22	20	<10	<10	<10	10	10
0	Black	<22	<20	<5	<5	<5	<10	<10

Strength tests taken until exhaustion - without stopping. 20m run - laps in 5 minutes

Award

Goal

Miller Health

7 Salvado Place, Stirling (Canberra) ACT 2611 Australia

(02) 6288 7703