Exercise stress tests help doctors and researchers understand how your heart and cardiovascular system respond to stress or exercise, according to the Cleveland Clinic. The tests require you to walk on a treadmill or pedal a stationary bike through increasing levels of difficulty, and the tests typically involve measurements such as your heart rate, blood pressure or level of oxygen uptake.
Cardiac Stress Test
Cardiac stress tests, also known as exercise or treadmill tests, are often used by physicians as a diagnostic tool to search for blockages in your coronary arteries, the arteries of your heart, according to an article by Julie Deardorff in the Los Angeles Times. However, exercise stress tests catch cardiovascular problems only about 60 percent of the time. Treadmill testing is also used by researchers studying cardiovascular dynamics and your response to exercise. In a typical stress test, you run on a treadmill or pedal a stationary bike through varying degrees of intensity until you tire. The intensity is increased sequentially, usually about every two minutes, by increasing the speed of the treadmill or the angle of incline or both, or by increasing resistance, if you're performing your stress test on a stationary bike. A typical stress test should take eight to 12 minutes to perform. Stress tests that examine your aerobic capacity measure your maximal oxygen uptake (VO2 max), lactate threshold and maximum heart rate, among other measurements.
Wingate Test
The Wingate test is an intense, 30-second stationary cycling test used to measure your anaerobic power or capacity. According to an article in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, the power you derive from your high-energy, glycolytic system peaks during the first 15 seconds of the test, and your aerobic metabolism responds quickly during high-intensity exercise and contributes significantly to your ability to perform this kind of work. Developed in the 1970s at the Wingate Institute in Israel, the Wingate test is one of the most popular tests examining your anaerobic power, but it's relatively specific to cycle-based sports, because of the use of a mechanically-braked bicycle ergometer as the testing device. During the Wingate test, your peak anaerobic power is measured, which is an indication of your body's ability to produce energy through your ATP-PC or glycolytic and phosphagenic pathways. After a 10-minute warm-up on the bicycle ergometer, you begin pedaling as fast as possible as a fixed resistance is applied to the flywheel of your bike, and you continue pedaling as fast as you can for 30 seconds.
Sit-And-Reach Test
The sit-and-reach test is touted by the YMCA as a way to monitor the development of your lower back and hamstring flexibility. You can use results from the sit-and-reach test to help determine your future training activities. According to Shape Up America!, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the responsible management of obesity, you'll need two items to perform your sit-and-reach test: a yard stick and adhesive tape. Put your yardstick on the floor with the zero mark closest to you. At the 15-inch mark, tape your yardstick to the floor. After an appropriate warm-up, sit on the floor with the yardstick situated between knees, keeping your feet about 10 to 12 inches apart, your heels even with the 15-inch mark of your yardstick and your legs extended in front of you. Placing one hand over the other, perform a smooth, gentle stretch forward along the yardstick as far as possible. Have a friend record this measurement. Perform your test three times to get an accurate value.
