The 3-Minute Step Test: Check Your Cardio Fitness With This Easy Exercise

While walking or using the stair-climber or another cardio machine, you might focus on your breathing or heart rate to gauge how hard you’re working. That’s a perfectly good approach—but it won’t tell you how aerobically fit you are. One of the easiest DIY ways to gauge your cardiovascular fitness is to do a three-minute step test, which assesses how quickly your heart rate recovers after you’ve exerted yourself.

Simply put, “the faster your heart rate recovers after doing aerobic exercise, the stronger and healthier it is and the more aerobically fit you are,” says Autumn Calabrese, a fitness and nutrition expert and BODi Super Trainer. “The step test measures cardiovascular strength and endurance—and it’s a good way to evaluate your current fitness level.”

You can perform this simple three-minute step test on your own or with a friend. It involves stepping up and down off a 12-inch-high step or bench, in an up-up-down-down pattern. You’ll need a stopwatch or timer, and it’s optimal if you have a metronome you can set to 130 beats per minute. (If you don’t, you can keep saying up-up-down-down or listen to Boom Boom Pow by The Black Eyed Peas, or another song with 130 bpm, to help yourself stay at a steady pace.)

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3 minute step test: How to do it

Before you start stepping, make sure you’re wearing comfortable workout clothes and flat-soled tennis or walking shoes. Warm up for two minutes by marching in place, doing jumping jacks or walking lunges.

Ready to start the test? Set your timer and with the foot of your choice, step onto the box or bench and bring the other foot next to it; then step down onto the floor with the foot you started with, followed by the other. Keep this pattern going, maintaining a consistent up-up-down-down rhythm. “You want to hit 22 to 24 steps per minute,” Calabrese says.

As you’re doing this, maintain good posture by pulling your belly button toward your spine to engage your core, help with balance, and protect your back. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. And let your arms move freely with the up and down motion.

After a minute and a half, switch the foot you start stepping with and keep the pattern going from there.

When three minutes have passed, stop stepping, stand still, and check your pulse at the wrist or your neck. Count the beats for 15 seconds then multiply the number by four.

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Interpreting your step test 3 minutes results

• Under 96 beats per minute: Excellent
• 94-104 beats: Good
• 105-115 beats: Above average
• 116-120 beats: Average
• 121 beats or higher: Below average

“The lower your heart rate is after the test, the higher your fitness level is,” explains Calabrese.

Below average step test results?

“There’s no reason to get down on yourself or frustrated — it’s just data,” says Calabrese. You can boost your cardiovascular strength and fitness by walking regularly, using a stair-climber, doing high-intensity interval training, or swimming—or by doing Calabrese’s 21 Day Fix program on BODi, now available to buy as a digital purchase (no subscription needed).

“Repeat the three-minute step test every 30 to 60 days as you continue to exercise,” she advises. Chances are, your heart rate recovery will gradually improve.

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Above average step test results?

“Keep up what you’re doing for exercise,” Calabrese says. “If you want to push yourself harder in your workouts, you can.” But that doesn’t mean you’ll do the step test any differently.

However, it is a good idea to “repeat the test periodically to make sure you stay in the good zone,” she says.

The bottom line

The results of this test reveal where you are now in terms of cardiovascular strength and endurance, which allows you to tailor your workouts accordingly, Calabrese says. “It’s a really good way to assess how you’re doing and continue to challenge yourself.”

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