PhysEd Network

fitter - healthier - happier

The Universal Fitness Test was originally designed to help corporate organisations:

•	keep track of those personally-generated metabolic and musculo-skeletal health dysfunctions of their staff that may contribute to higher levels of absenteeism, presenteeism, workers compensation and staff turnover

•	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 elite forces

In most occupations, people need a minimum of aerobic fitness, strength and flexibility 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 fitness, without which, over the years and decades, people become dysfunctional and in pain.

The fitness focus of the Universal Fitness Test is aerobic fitness and strength - though it also includes two optional flexibility tests (hamstring and buttock) and a percent body fat test.

From the workplace the Universal Fitness Test has become just that, a universal test of physical fitness that is also appropriate to children, sporting teams and adults of all ages.

Any medical check up that doesn't also include and assessment of fitness is seriously deficient.

The good thing about it is that the tests are based on common fitness exercises. The more you practice them the better your performance in the test.

The 20m run test is the gold standard aerobic fitness test.

Administration

The Universal Fitness 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, equally reliable and valid but with a better distribution of scores - and easier to administer.

It's important you do the tests in the order recommended. Do the 20m run test first, then the situps and pressups, followed by the squats and arm hang. If you do the squats before the situps you'll compromise your situps' score. Percent body fat has also been included in the list of assessments.

Universal Fitness Test Items

1.	AEROBIC FITNESS 20m run How many times can you walk, shuffle, jog or 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 - but don't stop! (See warning below.) 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.	ABDOMINAL 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. With feet held, the test becomes a front of body muscle test. Leg muscles, hip flexors and abdominal muscles are all involved in the situp process

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 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. We strongly recommend doing the test with a 3 cm heel raise.

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

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 complete 38 20mrun laps, 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 - see the shading and the tick in the right hand column of the scoring table below.

Highlight your best individual scores. To signify your 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.

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

SAMPLE AWARD - based on lowest score

3
Green

Point scoring system

You can also score points based on the level achieved for each test item.

Points received in the example above are:

Test
Points

20m run
6

Pressups
6

Situps
3

Squats
5

Arm hang
4

TOTAL / 50
31

SUPPLEMENTARY TESTS

Percent body fat

The gold standard for body composition is percent body fat. Theoretically, there is no need to measure how fat people are because generally speaking the fitter they are the closer they will be to their ideal weight. But having said that, it's a useful metric to include in a fitness assessment.

Men <	40	36	33	30	28	26	24	22	20	18	16
Women <	50	46	46	40	38	36	34	32	30	28	26
	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10

Flexibility

The third major fact of fitness is flexibility. Tight muscles move bones out of alignment. That’s the bad news. The good news is that once you have a flexibility training program muscles can move bones back into alignment again; poor function is restored to good. The body becomes pain free.

Whilst the flexibility tests don’t lend themselves to the Universal Fitness Test scoring system, we have included two supplementary tests of flexibility to round out the test battery.

Flexibility - sit and reach – test of hamstring flexibility

In a sitting position, with feet outstretched in front of you, see how far down past your toes you can reach with your fingers. Keep your knees straight.

Can't touch	Fingers			Palm			Wrist
0	4	5	6	7	8	9	10

Ability to sit up straight - test of buttock flexibility

With legs crossed and hands clasped behind your back, see if you can sit up straight.

Falling backwards on one or both sides scores 0. If you can only just sit up without falling over score 5.

	Fall over	Just			Perfect
	0	7	8	9	10

Fit-for-work standards

The gold standard is readily achievable by anyone who has a regular aerobic fitness and strength training program.

A Miller Health project

7 Salvado Place, Stirling (Canberra)

ACT 2611 Australia

61 2 6288 7703