Start here

Five steps, about forty minutes, and you will know where you stand.

Nobody ever tells you how you are doing. You get told to move more, or handed a programme written for a twenty-five year old. This is the version that answers the actual question.

  1. 01

    Print the card

    All eleven tests and all forty-four thresholds on one page. Free, no email, no signup. Take it with you.

    Open the standards card

  2. 02

    Test yourself in one session

    About forty minutes, rested, not at the end of a workout. Strength first, mobility and balance last. Film every test, because the camera is the only honest judge of form and you will disagree with it.

    Read the eleven tests

  3. 03

    Find your rung, then find your worst test

    Your level is the lowest rung you hold across all eleven. That worst test is not a weakness to hide, it is the thing that will move your whole score when you train it.

  4. 04

    Buy only what that test needs

    Nine of the eleven need nothing but a floor. Do not kit out a garage before you know which two tests you are actually short on.

    See the gear list

  5. 05

    Retest in eight weeks

    Not weekly. Weekly you are measuring noise, sleep and coffee. Eight weeks is long enough for the number to mean something.

The honest bit

This is not trainer advice.

Nobody here is a trainer or a physiotherapist. The thresholds come from doing this, filming it, and comparing notes with men who are doing the same. Five hundred push-ups a morning and no comfortable deep squat is a completely normal combination, and both of those get tested here.

Start a rung below where you think you belong. The kettlebell swing and the loaded carry are the two that punish ego fastest.

The channel

Watch a test before you attempt it.

Every one of the eleven gets its own video: what each rung looks like, the two mistakes everybody makes, and whether the gear is worth it or whether the floor will do.

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