Fitness
How to Measure Your Level of Everyday Fitness
Essential health and fitness standards depend on what you need to be capable of doing on a daily basis, but are you prepared for life’s emergencies? This question touches on that subject:
Stew, if you were a normal person just trying to be an asset in your everyday life (just living and emergencies), what fitness standards would you recommend? David
My answer stems from one of my definitions of tactical fitness:
Tactical fitness requires a person to be “good at everything” and not particularly great at any one thing. This means a person of any age should be able to engage in activities requiring strength, power, speed, agility, endurance, muscle stamina, flexibility, mobility and grip strength.
These abilities make you an asset (versus a liability) in practically any situation, meaning you can be helpful to others and save yourself in potentially dangerous situations, whether they are natural or man-made. You have a level of durability and a work capacity that allows you to do what needs to be done daily (chores, yard work, work/hobbies and life). You do not need to be world class in anything, but maintaining these elements of fitness will prolong your ability to stay an asset in your life.
The standards will vary with age and sex, and there is a wide range of capabilities below, but older men and women are still staying fit at above-average levels. Some people I know with higher-range scores on these activities are in their 80s! However, I would define remaining an asset as “above average” compared to society today.
Defining ‘Being an Asset’
Walk/Run (Endurance)
The endurance needed to walk an hour with no problem is a good minimum standard. Can you add weight to that walk? A backpack? A weight vest? If you can mix any jogging into that hour, that would be better. Can you run a mile without stopping? Can you run it faster than 8-10 minutes? As you progress through this range of abilities, the longer and faster (and more weight) you can move, the more of an asset you are. If you want a standard, walk with 25% of your body weight for one hour and run a mile without stopping. The younger you are, you can place a time and distance limit of 4 mph with walking and 7-8 minutes per mile running.
Muscle Stamina/Strength
Depending on your abilities, calisthenics may be considered a strength activity (one push-up, one pull-up, one dip). While your first repetition of calisthenics is a strength exercise, your 10th or 20th repetition involves muscle stamina. As an asset, you can do standard calisthenics for reps. However, if you can do one repetition, you have a level of strength that many lack. Where are you on this spectrum? Are calisthenics a strength or muscle stamina exercise? If it’s the latter, I would consider you an asset with your muscle stamina.
Strength/Load Bearing
As discussed above, strength and durability are required to carry a backpack and perform heavier calisthenics. However, are you strong? Can you lift heavy things? You can cultivate this ability in the gym or in the yard with wheelbarrows, bags of mulch, shovels of dirt or hay bales. Carrying groceries from the car to the house and walking the stairs without pause are lower-level capabilities, but many cannot.
How much weight can you lift off the floor, squat and chest-press? The greater percentage over your body weight places you in the asset category for strength. Can you carry someone out of a dangerous situation? This is the ultimate asset category. A firm grip is part of the strength function and can be tested by hanging on a pull-up bar or doing farmer’s walks with weight. Can you carry half of your body weight? One hundred percent of it during the farmer’s walk (two dumbbells)?
Flexibility/Mobility
Flexibility and mobility help you move quickly and without pain and stiffness. Can you bend over, touch your toes, get into the down dog pose, do a push-up and reverse the order to stand again? Or if you are in a chair or on the floor, are you stuck and struggle to stand without assistance? These are the basics of flexibility and mobility, but doing 10-20 different yoga poses or an hourlong yoga class places you on a higher level on the asset spectrum.
Speed and Agility
As we age, these qualities tend to be the first to go, even if you practice doing these activities. Playing a sport such as soccer, tennis or pickleball can help you maintain and improve speed and agility. Excessive speed can be practiced by jumping, running and stopping fast. Can you do an obstacle course? Can you do a shuttle run quickly? Maintaining these skills throughout life places you high on the asset spectrum, as not many people can move fast.
While these are loosely defined parameters of “an asset,” they demonstrate to most how little they are doing. By adding this variety of training to your week, you can have a moderately developed set of fitness skills that indeed make you an asset in typical situations.
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It’s important to have goals in mind as you set out on your fitness journey, whether you’re trying to lose weight, gain muscle or train for a race.skynesher/Supplied
January is notoriously the busiest time of year at the gym. A survey from Ipsos reported that a third of Canadians made exercise-based resolutions for the new year, with many folks working out for the first time or returning to fitness after some time away. If you’re new to exercise, the gym can feel like an intimidating place. But it doesn’t need to be. Below we’ve put together a few suggestions to help you get started.
Have a plan going in
For success at the gym, it’s crucial to have a plan. Before you start, it’s important to identify your goals. Are you looking to get stronger? Training for a race or competition? Do you want to improve body composition? While almost any consistent exercise is going to improve your overall health, specific results require specific training.
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Those completely new to working out may want to invest in a few sessions with a personal trainer. A reputable trainer will be able to put together a plan based on your preferences and skill level, while walking you through the proper form for each exercise. If cost is an issue, many gyms offer a free intro training session as a sign-up perk. There are also hundreds of different workout programs you can find online and video tutorials outlining proper form.
If you’re intimidated to exercise on your own, a fitness class allows you to follow along with an instructor while getting some quick pointers on how to properly perform the workout. Many gyms offer discounted or free classes to first-time visitors.
Trying to do too much, too fast will burn you out, leave you injured or both
When you’re motivated by a new year’s resolution, it’s tempting to pencil in long gym sessions multiple times a week. But that kind of regime is rarely sustainable. If you’d like to make exercising a habit beyond January – and you’ll need to for any kind of lasting results – it’s best to think about what you can do in the long term.
“You can either do an hour of weightlifting a few days a week, and actually do it, or you have these imaginary 10-hour training sessions you’ll never actually have time for,” said Dan John, strength coach and author. “I try to focus on [programs that are] doable, repeatable and reasonable.”
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Similarly, trying to immediately push beyond your physical limitations is a great way to get injured. For weightlifting, it’s important to consider proper warm-ups, active mobility exercises and learning the right techniques before trying to lift anything too heavy. For cardio, Canada Running Series offers a Couch to 5K plan that eases newcomers into jogging by starting small and gradually increasing the length/difficulty of each run.
Follow basic gym etiquette
The gym is a shared public space. Everyone there is trying to get in a good workout. That’s harder to do when people are having phone conversations, listening to videos without using headphones and refusing to wipe down their equipment after use.
In March, fitness trainer Paul Landini wrote an article explaining some unofficial rules to follow when going to the gym, including being mindful of other people’s space and making sure you’re not monopolizing equipment during busy hours.
Try to find what you like about the gym
Changes in body composition, strength and overall health take time. They also need upkeep over the long term. Building a consistent fitness habit is something that will help with all those goals. One of the best ways to do that is finding something at the gym you genuinely enjoy doing. That can be working out with a friend to add a social aspect to exercise and accountability to show up. It can entail learning a new fitness-adjacent skill such as boxing or training for a competition like Hyrox. It can be rooted in the sense of accomplishment that comes with getting stronger. Whatever the reason, finding the joy in exercise is going to be key if you want to move beyond short-term motivation.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – Finding time to work out as a mom with young kids can be a challenge in itself, especially when you’re new to an area and don’t know where to start. However, a new fitness option strolled into Sioux Falls today. iStroll offers moms the chance to work out and meet other moms all while their kids can play or even join alongside them.
iStroll is a national organization that has more than 35 locations in the country but this is the first time one opened in South Dakota. It’s a full body workout that incorporates dumbbells, body weight, and jogging strollers when the weather’s nice.
“I found iStroll in Oklahoma and fell in love,” said Kelsi Supek who started the affiliate in Sioux Falls. “We made friends. It became our entire social network. The kids loved it and then we moved to Arizona during COVID. And all the moms were stuck at home. They were inside with our kids and lonely, honestly. And we were like, why can’t we start an iStroll and be out at the parks with the kids every day? And it took off.”
When Supek moved to Sioux Falls, she was encouraged by her family to start an affiliate and own it herself.
“Gym daycares did not work out for my children,” said Supek. “I would get 10 minutes into a class and then I’d have that person trying to knock outside the yoga studio going, Can I have Kelsey and her kids screaming in daycare? And it just didn’t work for us. So at iStroll they could be with me or I could be breastfeeding the baby as I was teaching in class.”
Classes are planned to continue each Wednesday and Friday at We Rock the Spectrum and First Presbyterian Church. For a full schedule for January and February, you can look at their Facebook. The first class is also free and memberships are for the whole family.
“Letting the kids see you work out is, it’s similar to homeschooling where like, you know, how are they going to love working out if they don’t see you working out,” said Kelly Jardeleza, a stay-at-home mom of three kids. “Whereas at other gyms they put them in a room and they don’t get to watch you. And how are you going to inspire them if they’re not watching you do it?”
Copyright 2026 Dakota News Now. All rights reserved.
There’s no bad time to take a more active interest in your health, but the new year, for lots of us, feels like a fresh start. Maybe you’re planning to sign up for a 10k or finally have a go at bouldering, eat a bit better or learn to swing a kettlebell. Maybe you want to keep up with your grandkids — or just be a little bit more physically prepared for whatever life throws at you.
To help things along, Guardian Live invites you to a special event with public health expert Devi Sridhar, journalist and author Mariella Frostrup, and health and fitness columnist Joel Snape. They’ll be joining the Guardian’s Today in Focus presenter Annie Kelly to discuss simple, actionable ways to stay fit and healthy as you move through the second half of life: whether that means staying strong and mobile or stressing less and sleeping better.
To make the whole event as helpful as possible, we’d love to hear from you about what you find most challenging — or confusing — when it comes to health and exercise. What should you actually be eating, and how are you going to find the time to make it? What sort of exercise is best, and how often should you be doing it? Is Pilates worth the effort — and should we really all be drinking mugfuls of piping hot creatine?
Whether your question is about exercise, eating, or general wellness, post it below and we’ll put a selection to our panel on the night.
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