The harvard step test is a test of aerobic fitness, developed by Brouha et al. (1943) in the Harvard Fatigue Laboratories during WWII. The features of this test is that it is simple to conduct and requires minimal equipment.
Objective : The objective of this test is to monitor the development of the athlete’s cardiovascular system.
Required Resources
To undertake this test you will require :
* Gym bench (45 cm high)
* Stopwatch
* Assistant
How to conduct the test
This test requires the athlete to step up and down off a 45cm high gym bench for 5 minutes at a rate 30 steps/ minute.
* The athlete warms up for 10 minutes
* The assistant gives the command “Go” and starts the stopwatch.
* The athlete steps up and down onto a standard gym bench once every two seconds for five minutes (150 steps)
* The assistant stops the test after 5 minutes.
* The assistant measures the athlete’s heart (bpm) one minute after finishing the test pulse 1
* The assistant measures the athlete’s rate (bpm) two minutes after finishing the test - Pulse-2
* The assistant measures the athlete’s heart rate (bpm) three minutes after finishing the test pulse3.
Scoring : The fitness index score is determined by the following equations. For example. if the total test time was 300 seconds (if completed the whole 5 minutes) and the number of heart beats between 1-1.5 minutes was 90. between 2-2.5 it was 80 and between 3-3.5 it was 70, then the long form fitness index score would be : (100x300) / (240x2) = 62.5. Note: you are using the total number of heart beats in the 30 second
period. Not the rate (beats per minute) during that time.
Score Cardiovascular Rating
