The Harvard Step Test is a type of cardiac stress test for detecting and/or diagnosing cardiovascular disease. It also is a good measurement of fitness, and your ability to recover after a strenuous exercise. The more quickly your heart rate returns to resting, the better shape you are in.
It is a kind of cardiovascular endurance test. The test computes the capability to exercise continuously for extended intervals of time without tiring. The subject (person who is taking the test) steps up and down on a platform at a height of about 45 cm. at a rate of 30 steps per minute for 5 minutes or until exhaustion. Exhaustion is the point at which the subject cannot maintain the stepping rate for 15 seconds. The subject immediately sits down on completion of the test, and the heartbeats are counted for 1 to 1.5, 2 to 2.5, and 3 to 3.5 minutes.
The test was developed at Harvard University in 1943. Several modified versions of the original Harvard Step test exist; an example is the Tecumseh step test. Another modified version, the Sharkey step test, was developed in the 1970s for use by the United States Forest Service at the University of Montana in Missoula.
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