Fitness Test

The Polar Fitness Test is an easy, safe and quick way to estimate your aerobic (cardiovascular) fitness at rest. The result, Polar OwnIndex, is comparable to maximal oxygen uptake (VO_2max), which is commonly used to evaluate aerobic fitness. Your long-term training background, heart rate, heart rate variability at rest, gender, age, height, and body weight all influence OwnIndex. The Polar Fitness Test is developed for use by healthy adults.

Aerobic fitness relates to how well your cardiovascular system works to transport oxygen to your body. The better your aerobic fitness, the stronger and more efficient your heart is. Good aerobic fitness has many health benefits. For example, it helps in decreasing the risk of high blood pressure and your risk of cardiovascular diseases and stroke. If you want to improve your aerobic fitness it takes, on average, six weeks of regular training to see a noticeable change in your OwnIndex. Less fit individuals see progress even more rapidly. The better your aerobic fitness, the smaller the improvements in your OwnIndex.

Aerobic fitness is best improved by training types that use large muscle groups. Such activities include running, cycling, walking, rowing, swimming, skating, and cross-country skiing. To monitor your progress, start by measuring your OwnIndex a couple of times during the first two weeks in order to get a baseline value, and then repeat the test approximately once a month.

To make sure the test results are reliable, the following basic requirements apply:

• You can perform the test anywhere - at home, at the office, at a health club - provided the testing environment is peaceful. There should be no disturbing noises (e.g. television, radio, or telephone) and no other people talking to you.
• Always take the test in the same environment and at the same hour.
• Avoid eating a heavy meal or smoking 2-3 hours prior to testing.
• Avoid heavy physical exertion, alcohol, and pharmaceutical stimulants on the test day and the previous day.
• You should be relaxed and calm. Lie down and relax for 1-3 minutes before starting the test.

Before the test

Wear your heart rate sensor. For more information, see Wear Heart Rate Sensor

Before starting the test, make sure your physical settings including training background are accurate in Settings > Physical settings

Performing the Test

To perform the fitness test, go toTests > Fitness Test > Relax and start the test.

• Searching for heart rate is displayed. When heart rate is found, a heart rate graph, your current heart rate and Lie down & relax is shown on the display. Stay relaxed and limit body movements and communication with other people.
• You can interrupt the test in any phase by pressing BACK. Test canceled is displayed.

If V800 cannot receive your heart rate signal, the message Test failed is displayed. In which case, you should check that the heart rate sensor electrodes are wet and that the textile strap fits snugly.

Test Results

When the test is over, you hear two beeps along with a description of your fitness test result and your estimated VO_2max is displayed.

Update to VO2max to physical settings? is displayed.

• Select Yes to save the value to your Physical settings.
• Select No only if you know your recently measured VO_2max value, and if it differs more than one fitness level class from the result.

Your latest test result is shown in Tests > Fitness test > Latest result. Only your most recently performed test result is shown.

For a visual analysis of your Fitness test results, go to the Flow web service and select the test from your Diary to view details from it.

Fitness Level Classes

Men

Age / Years	Very low	Low	Fair	Moderate	Good	Very good	Elite
20-24	< 32	32-37	38-43	44-50	51-56	57-62	> 62
25-29	< 31	31-35	36-42	43-48	49-53	54-59	> 59
30-34	< 29	29-34	35-40	41-45	46-51	52-56	> 56
35-39	< 28	28-32	33-38	39-43	44-48	49-54	> 54
40-44	< 26	26-31	32-35	36-41	42-46	47-51	> 51
45-49	< 25	25-29	30-34	35-39	40-43	44-48	> 48
50-54	< 24	24-27	28-32	33-36	37-41	42-46	> 46
55-59	< 22	22-26	27-30	31-34	35-39	40-43	> 43
60-65	< 21	21-24	25-28	29-32	33-36	37-40	> 40

Women

Age / Years	Very low	Low	Fair	Moderate	Good	Very good	Elite
20-24	< 27	27-31	32-36	37-41	42-46	47-51	> 51
25-29	< 26	26-30	31-35	36-40	41-44	45-49	> 49
30-34	< 25	25-29	30-33	34-37	38-42	43-46	> 46
35-39	< 24	24-27	28-31	32-35	36-40	41-44	> 44
40-44	< 22	22-25	26-29	30-33	34-37	38-41	> 41
45-49	< 21	21-23	24-27	28-31	32-35	36-38	> 38
50-54	< 19	19-22	23-25	26-29	30-32	33-36	> 36
55-59	< 18	18-20	21-23	24-27	28-30	31-33	> 33
60-65	< 16	16-18	19-21	22-24	25-27	28-30	> 30

The classification is based on a literature review of 62 studies where VO_2max was measured directly in healthy adult subjects in the USA, Canada and 7 European countries. Reference: Shvartz E, Reibold RC. Aerobic fitness norms for males and females aged 6 to 75 years: a review. Aviat Space Environ Med; 61:3-11, 1990.