Last week we talked about 5 Key gym numbers to watch. Today we’re going to follow up with that and discuss how to measure your own progress by creating a ranking system.
Lets quickly recap the 5 key gym numbers:
- Attendance
- Sleep
- Logging your daily results
- Hours being active outside the gym
- Daily Steps
I’ve had an idea for awhile about creating a standardized fitness measuring scale. Imagine, if there were a series of fitness tests that anyone could do, at any gym, and receive a score that gives them an accurate representation of their current fitness. Although I’ve never actually put this on paper or did any testing on it, the idea has stuck around in my head for awhile.
After writing last weeks post on the 5 key gym numbers, I started thinking: what if I applied that same standardized score theory to these #’s. That would then allow anyone paying attention to any, or all, of these numbers, a starting point of where to progress from. It’s not enough to say “I think I’m getting more sleep” or “I know I’m getting more steps”. We need to track it if we want to measure progress. And if we can track multiple categories and put a score on them, then we can really start to see our overall progress grow significantly.
Let’s begin by assigning a score to each category. Although these are simply arbitrary #’s, as long as you use the same system every time, they’ll be meaningful to you. The idea will be to slowly improve your overall score, whether it’s from making gains at the #’s you’re already high in and making them better, or focusing on your lower scoring categories. Progress is progress, and how you get there is up to you.
Use the scoring table below. Go through each one and give yourself an honest score. Add them up and use your total # to see how you rank below.
Gym attendance: How many days you worked out in a week.
1-2 days = give yourself a 1
3 days = give yourself a 3
4+ days = give yourself a 5
Sleep: Take the average over a 3-5 day period.
1-6 hours = give yourself a 1
6-7 hours or less = give yourself a 3
7-8 hours = give yourself a 5
Logging your daily workout results: You enter them in your workout app.
You never log results = give yourself a 1 (it should really be a 0, but we’re keeping the scoring consistent)
You sometimes log results = give yourself a 3
You log every workouts results = give yourself a 5
Hours active outside the gym in a week: this includes any regular activity (sports, walking/hiking, biking, yard work)
0-30 minutes: give yourself a 1
30-60 minutes: give yourself a 3
70+ minutes: give yourself a 5
(but only if these were spread out over 3+ days. 1 day of a 70 minute hike isn’t as beneficial as accumulating that amount over 3 different days of the week)
Daily Step Count: Take the average over a 3-5 day period
0-6,999 = give yourself a 1
7,000-9,999 = give yourself a 3
10,000+ = give yourself a 5
A quick note on these scores: These are all arbitrary, and are not meant to ensinuiate that you must reach each level in order to be a fitter or healthier person. Rather, it’s just a simple way of assigning #’s to our overall progress so you have a way of measuring. Also, please understand that there are only 3 scoring levels on each to keep things really simple. I’m not trying to say that getting 100 steps in a day is equal to getting 6,999 steps, they’re just lumped into the same category for simplicity.
What’d you Score?!!
5-9 | You’re barely doing enough to maintain your current health and fitness, and may even be slightly declining over time. Pick the easiest category to improve, and start there. Then move on to the next. Over the next 3-6 months, aim to score higher on all 5 categories.
10-14 | You’re maintaining your health and fitness, but are still below average when it comes to overall activity. Don’t expect to see progress. Pick your 2 lowest areas and work on bringing those up a bit.
15-20 | Congrats! You’re doing enough to see steady progress over time. You still have some room to improve if you’re wanting to chase bigger goals. Look at your weakest score and bring that up and it’ll pay dividends.
21-25 | You’re at the top! You’re likely in the top 1% of health and fitness for the population. If you’ve been here for awhile, progress is hard to come by, but that’s because you’re so close to the ceiling (this is a good thing). If you’ve recently got here, expect lots of amazing progress over the next year. Keep doing what you’re doing, and share your journey to inspire others!
If these categories and #’s don’t appeal to you, then use this same format and make up your own. As stated earlier, it’s all arbitrary, so you could easily come up with your own system, then use it to rank yourself quarterly. The main focus here is that you are working towards doing enough to see the results that you really want.