Here are three simple tests you can conduct to test your overall strength, flexibility, and stamina.

Hand-grip Test:

Grab the hand grip and squeeze it, one hand at a time. Do it three times and write down your numbers. If it’s too easy, get a stronger exerciser, but you always want your grip strength to be greater than 15 pounds. Higher hand strength correlates with slowing the aging process. Practicing with the gripper (or squeezing a rubber ball) will help you gain hand strength.

Hip-flexion Test:

Lie flat on your back with your arms at your sides and your legs straight out on the floor. Without moving your hips or pelvis, lift your right leg up toward the ceiling, keeping your knee straight. Repeat with your left leg.

Results: You should be able to lift your legs until they are almost pointing directly toward the ceiling (about 80 to 90 degrees of hip flexion). If you have less than the desired flexibility, be sure to include hamstring stretches in your workout.

Breathing (Heart and Lung) Test:

Take a six-minute walk. You should be able to cover about six hundred yards in that time. Within a few weeks, you should be able to increase your speed to go about fifty yards longer within those six minutes.

After the first few weeks, test yourself monthly.