12-Minute Run Test
How Fit am I?
Fitness can be tested in all manner of ways. A common understanding of fitness is how long and,
or, fast someone can run/cycle/row etc. for. This is a test of cardiovascular endurance – a person’s
ability to sustain prolonged exercise for minutes, hours or even days!
Cardiovascular endurance
Very simply put, cardiovascular endurance is the ability of the heart, lungs and blood vessels to
deliver oxygen to working muscles and tissues (and remove the bi-products). To train for a half-
marathon, you need to train your cardiovascular endurance. This type of training is different to the
training you need to do to run a fast 800 metres.
Here's one simple test of ‘fitness’. Another test you can use is the 1.5 mile run test?
12 Minute Run Test
Developed in the 1960s by Dr Cooper, the 12-minute run test measures how far a person can
cover (run, walk, jog) in 12 minutes. Simple. Ideally you want to take this test on a standard
running track, or a location where you can measure distance run without having to stop. If you’re
struggling to find anywhere the treadmill could be an option, however, remember that this is an
artificial environment. You will need to raise the belt to a 1 degree incline to simulate outdoor
running.
You will need:
• A stopwatch and
• Something to record the distance covered, such as cones placed around the running track at
standardised distances.
What to do?
• Warm-up before you take the test (5-10 minutes of light jogging and stretching).
• Start the timer and off you go!
• Run, jog or walk for the whole 12 minutes.
• Record the distance covered.
How did you do?
Look at the table overleaf to get an estimate of your fitness:
© Get Back To Sport 2017 All rights reserved www.getbacktosport.com
12-minute run test
(Adapted from: Cooper, K.H. (1968), “A means of assessing maximal oxygen uptake,” Journal of
the American Medical Association, 203:201-204)
© Get Back To Sport 2017 All rights reserved www.getbacktosport.com
