Medical Evaluation

• Although many people exercise to look good in the mirror, some of the greatest benefits of improved fitness can't be seen at all. Improving your diet and getting regular exercise boosts your mood, lowers your cholesterol and blood pressure and decreases your risk of chronic illnesses such as osteoporosis or heart disease. Before you begin integrating fitness into your life, visit your doctor to learn your stats. Make a note of your starting weight, blood pressure, heart rate and cholesterol count. You can also visit a fitness professional to learn your body-fat percentage. Certified personal trainer Dominic Mamaril says that the average person should see improvements after just one month of exercise and healthful eating.
  
  

Strength

• Strength is an important component of physical fitness. Test your strength by calculating your one-rep max -- the maximum amount of weight you can lift one time -- for the "fundamental strength exercises" of the squat or leg press, bench press and deadlift. The safest way to do this is to choose a weight you can lift ten times and multiply that weight by 1.3. The product of that multiplication is your one-rep max. After a month of strength training, test your one-rep max again.
  
  

Endurance

• Endurance, or how long you can perform an activity without stopping, comprises another dimension of fitness. You can test your muscular endurance by performing push-ups or single-leg squats to failure, which is the point at which you can't perform another repetition. Test your cardiovascular endurance through intervals. Run or bike for four minutes as quickly as you can. Record how far you go. Recover at a slow pace for three minutes. Repeat two more times. Average how far you go at your fastest. This represents your level of endurance. Extend your endurance through interval training and repeat the test after one month.
  
  

Flexibility

• Increasing your flexibility makes you less prone to muscle pulls, tears and other injuries. In addition, flexibility activities like yoga can boost mood and hone balance. The sit-and-reach test provides an accurate assessment of flexibility. Sit on the ground with your legs stretched in front of you and your feet 12 inches apart. Place a yardstick between your legs with the zero mark nearest your body and your heels even with the 15-inch mark. Bend forward at the waist and measure how far your fingertips reach. Improve your flexibility through activities like stretching, yoga and tai chi. Test again in one month.