ChadReilly.com

3 Warnings

Warning 1 of 3: if you’re “out of shape”

While this test is for all levels of fitness. If you are very weak, injured, or well above ideal weight, the safe way of taking the test may be to NOT “physically” take the test. You still get a score, it’s just zero, for now.

So, if you look at the three parts below and have anxiety about taking the test, good enough, you took the test. You scored a zero. While that’s a bad score, it’s a good thing to know. If the challenge is accepted, it’s all up from here. If my experience as a physical therapist taught me anything, it’s that zero is not uncommon, nor is it all that hard to move up. And down from zero, while possible, isn’t cute.

The good news is that while the MuscleTest is derived from Levels-2 and 3 of SpineFitYoga’s M5 program, the program has a Level-1 designed to safely and effectively get virtually everyone scoring positively. More good news is the “5” in M5 means it’s only 5 minutes. More info…

Warning 2 of 3: if you’re in reasonable shape

If you are in at least modest shape, you’ve read the descriptions, watched the demos, and think you can safely take the test, I encourage you to try, but I would caution you to ease into it at first. You get as many tries as you want to work up a better score later. The MuscleTest is NOT all or none. If you look at the three parts and think you can do some Lunges and/or Pushups, but maybe not Pullups, doing what you can will get you on the board, likely progressing to, or near mid tier before Pullups come into play. As you gain experience, fitness, and self-awareness with the exercises you should know when you can safely give it your all. Likewise as overall fitness improves the more difficult or impossible aspects will become easier/possible.

If you’re in this group and your score isn’t as high as you would like, becoming a member and doing M5 will almost certainly level up you up your build in the most efficient way possible. But by all means feel free to use the MuscleTest to measure and compare progress with any other exercise program. Or even test your trainer, that’s always fun.

Warning 3 of 3: to all

The L3-Lunges are harder than EVERYONE thinks. Knee-to-floor-jump-lunges to failure is taking things to an entirely different level from what most expect. Unlike the Pushups and Pullups they are not something most of us have prior experience with. Though faster than L2-Lunges, they are easily 3-4 times more difficult. Attempting L3-Lunges without having scored a >35 L2-Lunges in 1-minute first, makes it fairly likely you will strain something. I’ve witnessed people literally collapse, during or right after the exercise. You have been warned. That said, L2-Lunges are not fast enough to score at the top of the MuscleTest, and with proper preparation L3s are both safe and awesome.