People kept telling me I was strong. Good upper body, decent legs, clearly been training for years. And they were right — I have been in and around gyms for most of my adult life. But strong and fit are not the same thing. I knew that. I just kept not testing it.
During Covid and the lockdowns I had been training consistently and filming some of what I was doing. I had also been doing 5km runs — not because I am a runner, but because I needed to know where I actually stood cardiovascularly. I was approaching 50, I had been managing Type 1 diabetes since 2008, and I had spent years telling people that fitness is important. It felt dishonest not to find out how fit I actually was.
So I tested myself. Properly. The bleep test, timed 5km runs, and a push-up challenge that started as something reasonable and ended somewhere considerably less dignified.
The Bleep Test — What It Is and What It Told Me
The multi-stage fitness test — commonly called the bleep test or beep test — was developed by Léger and Lambert in 1982 and remains one of the most widely used assessments of cardiovascular fitness in sport and exercise science. It involves running between two lines 20 metres apart in time with audio beeps that become progressively faster. The test continues until you can no longer keep up with the pace.
Results are given as a level and shuttle number. The level you reach correlates to a predicted VO2 max — your body's maximum oxygen uptake — which is one of the most reliable indicators of cardiovascular fitness. The test is used by professional sports teams, the military and fitness professionals worldwide. It is genuinely hard.
My first attempt was around April 2021. I was not kitted out properly, I had not specifically trained for it, and I will be honest — I had not run seriously in a long time. I managed 7 minutes before the beeps got the better of me.
"My excuse at the time was that I was not kitted out properly. That was partly true. The bigger truth was that my cardiovascular fitness was nowhere near where I thought it was."
— oldschoolPT
Seven minutes is not a disaster. But it was not where someone who trains three to four times a week should be. The bleep test does not care about your bench press or how much you squat. It asks one question: how efficiently does your body use oxygen under sustained aerobic stress? The answer, in my case, was not efficiently enough.
That result was useful. Not because it was good — it was not — but because it was honest. You cannot manage what you do not measure. I had been measuring my strength for years and ignoring my aerobic fitness entirely. The bleep test fixed that.
The 5km Runs — Where I Actually Was
The 5km run is one of the most accessible and useful indicators of general cardiovascular fitness. It is long enough to require genuine aerobic effort and short enough to be completed in a single session without specialist endurance training. It can be run on a treadmill or outdoors, timed accurately and repeated to track progress. For anyone over 40 returning to cardiovascular training, the 5km is a sensible starting benchmark.
I completed only one 10km run and my time was around 58 minutes. For someone who does not run often, I thought that was respectable. Since lockdown I decided to focus on 5km distances instead — more manageable, more repeatable, and a better baseline for where I actually was.
Thirty minutes for 5km. That is a 6 minute per kilometre pace. For a non-runner who trains primarily for strength, that is a reasonable starting point. It is not fast. But it is a number — something to build from. The average time of 35 minutes tells the more honest story: on a good day, thirty minutes. On a normal day, closer to thirty-five.
I decided to attempt running 5km every day for 30 days. I realised very quickly just how hard that is. I will never give up on it though. It remains something I intend to complete properly.
The Push-Up Challenge — Pride Before a Fall
Push-ups are one of the best bodyweight exercises in existence. Simple, requiring no equipment, testing the chest, triceps, shoulders and core simultaneously. I decided to attempt 100 push-ups. Straightforward enough.
Then I decided to do 100 push-ups after a 5km run. Considerably less straightforward.
Push-up performance is a reliable indicator of upper body muscular endurance and, according to research, correlates with cardiovascular health in middle-aged adults. A Harvard study found that men who could complete more than 40 push-ups had significantly lower risk of cardiovascular disease than those who could complete fewer than 10. The push-up is not just a strength exercise — it is a health marker.
"I learned that I am not 18 anymore. Doing 85 push-ups without stopping is not possible when you are pushing towards 50. I was not going to let that stop me."
— oldschoolPT
My starting point was 9 push-ups. That sounds terrible. In the context of post-5km, after years of inconsistent training, with Type 1 diabetes affecting recovery and energy — it was a starting point. Nothing more, nothing less.
From 9 to 51 in two weeks. That progression happened because the body responds remarkably quickly when you actually push it. Two weeks of consistent effort and the numbers more than quintupled. This is the point that gets lost in most fitness content — the early gains are the fastest gains. The body adapts rapidly when stimulus is applied consistently.
40 push-ups in 30 seconds. Not 81 — my PE teacher timed me at 81 when I was around 16. But 40 at nearly 50, with T1D, after a 5km run, compares well against the age group norms. Better than I expected, honestly.
What This All Taught Me
The honest lesson from all of this is simple: I had been strong without being fit. Those are two different things and I had confused them for years. The gym builds strength. Cardiovascular fitness requires cardiovascular work. You cannot bench press your way to a good VO2 max.
The second lesson is about honesty with yourself. It is easy to avoid testing yourself — especially when you suspect the result will be uncomfortable. I kept not doing the bleep test. I kept not timing my runs. As long as I did not measure, I could maintain the comfortable fiction that the fitness was there.
It was not. But I found that out, and then I did something about it. That is the whole point.
Most of my father's side of the family have passed away with Type 1 complications. Cardiovascular health is not abstract for me — it is the difference between a long life and a short one. Every 5km run, every bleep test, every push-up challenge is part of the same project: staying alive and staying functional for as long as possible.
"I have been doing all of this with Type 1 diabetes. Imagine what these numbers could be with a perfect diet and no booze. Something to work towards."
— oldschoolPT
How to Test Yourself
If this has prompted you to want to know where you actually stand, the Fitness Testing page on this site has full protocols for the bleep test, the 5-10-5 shuttle, the Illinois agility test and the 60 metre sprint — all with animated diagrams and honest reference notes on what the scores mean.
Start with the bleep test and a timed 5km. Record the results. Do not judge them — just record them. Come back in six weeks and test again. The numbers will tell you whether what you are doing is working.
"You cannot manage what you do not measure."
— oldschoolPT
