Fitness Magazine Fitness Test Rant
 

So, Fitness magazine had an article this month - some "Test how fit you really are" piece with a series of 9 tests, covering UB and LB strength, cardio endurance and recovery, core strength, and flexibility, along with some body measurement stuff. I decided to take it.

The good news: On all ACTUAL tests of fitness, I got a perfect score, as well as on 2/3 measurement questions (waist to hip ratio and waist measurement).

The bad news: I got a "poor" on the last question, because I have a BMI just barely into the overweight range.

Now, given that BMI is correlated with POPULATION health, but does not necessarily apply to individuals (unlike Waist and Waist-to-Hip), I'm not sure why it would appear on what is supposed to be an individual fitness test at all. It also wasn't weighted...my BMI score was as important as, say, my cardio recovery or my core strength.

Yes, I'm insanely competitive, but I think its normal to be miffed that my otherwise perfect score was marred by 1 point on an arbitrary scale that does not apply to all individuals! And also by the fact that the little rating key at the end says "Give yourself a pat on the back for that six-pack".

How about the idea that people can be perfectly FIT without having a six-pack (which requires very very low body fat percentage), or even while being just a little bit overweight??

It annoyed me enough that I needed to vent.

For those of you interested in the test, it's here:

http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/fitne...c=rdfit1101509

Yea - BMI is not a good measurement for BF% for individuals.

They should have used the navy method. It's not great but it's better.

See how you do on that one. :D

Fitness magazine is what it is. You know better and that's what's important here. It does still bug me because that is the magazine than many women grab when they first decide to do something, and they don't know any better yet. Sometimes it does have some good stuff in it, but a lot of times it is misleading at best. Grrrrr!

I agree with FitGirlyGirl - it is what it is. I've never seen the Navy Method before, so thanks for the link JohnP. I wonder why it uses the neck measurement (anyone have any ideas?).