3 At-Home Fitness Tests to See Where You’re Starting After 60

Not sure where you’re starting when it comes to flexibility, balance, and overall fitness? These 3 simple at-home tests can give you a clearer picture of where you are now and what you may need to focus on as you begin exercising after 60.

Many of the women we first meet have never had a proper fitness assessment. That can be an issue because a good fitness assessment is one of the most important first steps when you’re pursuing your fitness goals after 60. It tells you exactly where you’re starting and helps you understand what you may need to focus on.

The challenge is that not every woman is able to make it into our South Hills personal training studio for an assessment. Maybe you live outside the area, or maybe you’re simply too busy during this season of life to make it in. Regardless, I wanted to share a simple three-exercise fitness assessment you can do right at home.

While this isn’t the same as being assessed by an experienced personal trainer, it’s a shorter, simplified version that can still help you gain a better understanding of where you’re starting. This isn’t about passing or failing. It’s simply about finding your baseline, because it’s hard to know where to start with your fitness goals if you don’t first know your starting point.

To keep things simple, we’ll grade each test with a simple yes or no. Yes, you can complete the test. No, you cannot. Professional fitness assessments can become much more detailed and complicated, but that isn’t the goal here. And a “no” should never make you feel bad. It simply gives you useful information about an area you may need to focus on.

One more important note before you begin. These tests should never cause pain or uncomfortable strain. A mild stretch or a little muscle fatigue can be normal, but anything beyond that means you’re pushing too far. If something starts to feel uncomfortable, stop before trying to go any farther. The goal is to learn more about where you’re starting, not to force your body through something that doesn’t feel right.

Fitness Test #1: Toe Touch

This is an old classic test that can still be effective today. It gives you a simple way to see how flexible your hips, hamstrings, and back are.

How to Perform the Toe Touch Test

First, stand tall with your knees straight. Then slowly start to reach your hands down toward your feet. Please move slowly and only go as far as you comfortably can. Stop when you feel a mild stretch in your hips or hamstrings.

Again, the goal is not to force yourself to touch your toes. You can either comfortably touch your toes or you cannot. Give yourself a simple yes or no.

If it’s a no, that simply means flexibility is an area you may need to focus on, especially through your hips and hamstrings. There is nothing wrong with that. The whole point of the test is to find your starting point.

Fitness Test #2: Single-Leg Balance

This test will give you a simple idea of how well you can balance on each leg. After 60, balance becomes more important with each passing year. Good balance can help reduce your risk of falls and injuries, which makes this one of the more important areas to pay attention to.

How to Perform the Single-Leg Balance Test

First, stand tall and relax your arms at your sides. Try not to lift your arms during the test. Using your arms can make balancing easier, but it will not give you as clear a picture of how your balance is doing.

Next, lift one foot just a few inches off the ground. Start slowly counting the moment your foot comes off the ground. Stop counting as soon as your foot has to touch the ground or you have to lift an arm out to the side to help yourself balance.

It’s important not to strain or fight to stay on one foot. When you start to feel like you’re losing your balance, simply put your foot down.

Can you comfortably balance on one leg for 40 seconds? Give yourself a yes or no, and then repeat the test on the other leg.

If standing on one leg for 40 seconds was challenging or you were unable to do it, that simply tells you balance is an area you may need to prioritize.

Fitness Test #3: Shoulder Mobility

The shoulders are one of the first areas where many people notice they have lost some flexibility as they get older. We live in a society where we do a lot of sitting, and over the years it can become harder to move our shoulders as freely if we’re not doing the right exercises.

That can show up in your posture and in everyday activities that require you to reach behind you or overhead. This test gives you a simple way to see how your shoulders are moving right now.

How to Perform the Shoulder Mobility Test

First, stand tall and keep your head up throughout the test. Reach your left hand up behind your back while reaching your right hand down behind your back. The goal is simply to see whether your fingertips can comfortably touch behind you.

Another friendly reminder here: do not force your fingers to touch. If you force your hand higher up your back than it comfortably wants to go, you can strain your shoulder. Your score is simply yes, my fingertips can comfortably touch, or no, they cannot.

You’ll want to test both sides. First, reach your left hand up your back toward your right hand coming down. Then switch sides and reach your right hand up your back toward your left hand coming down.

Technically, you’ll give yourself two scores here, one for each side. If you cannot comfortably touch your fingertips behind your back, it simply means shoulder strength and mobility are areas you may need to focus on.

Taking the Next Step

Sure, we could have assessed many more areas, but these three tests can still give you some valuable information. They can give you enough of a starting point to help you decide what to focus on next.

Take a moment to think about which test you found the most challenging. For most people, one tends to stand out a little more than the others. Once you know which area needs the most attention, consider spending just a few minutes each day working on it.

What’s nice is that you can simply practice the test itself. If balancing was the hardest, practice standing on one foot for a short period of time. If shoulder mobility was the most challenging, practice reaching one hand up your back and the other hand down your back, then alternate sides. If the toe touch was the hardest, practice slowly reaching down toward your toes, stopping when you feel a mild stretch.

At first, don’t turn this into a workout. Simply take a few minutes to practice the area that needs the most attention. Small steps like this can help you build a new habit, and over time that habit can lead into a more complete exercise routine.

If you want a deeper, more involved fitness assessment so you can get a more complete understanding of where you’re starting, we’d be happy to help with that as well. The first step at our South Hills personal training studio is a complimentary assessment. You can apply for a free week of personal training on our website to start the process.

And if you simply want to learn more about getting more fit in your 50s, 60s, 70s, or beyond, you can read my article, 5 Exercises to Help You Stay Active After 50.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jason Zawodniak is the Co-founder of A50 Personal Training, the first personal training studio in the South Hills built exclusively to serve women over 50. With nearly two decades of experience in the fitness industry, Jason noticed early in his career that women over 50 were consistently underserved — showing up to gyms where they felt out of place, unsure of what to do, and afraid of getting hurt. After hearing those same stories from his own clients year after year, he made a decision: in 2017, he opened A50 to create the program he knew this demographic deserved. Today, Jason specializes in helping women over 50 build the strength and flexibility they need to stay active, prevent injury, and keep up with the people and activities they love most.