A lot of athletes hit a “plateau” in their training efforts where it becomes difficult to advance any further. Making progress in fitness is all about measuring speed, strength, agility and other attributes by keeping a record of your achievements and capabilities along the way. Unfortunately, many athletes and fitness enthusiasts are failing to reach their full potential because they’re not keeping tally of where they’re at. Becoming a better athlete is all about setting performance goals and then training to meet those goals. The idea is to gradually advance as you meet new goals that become slightly more challenging each week or month, depending on how fast and aggressive your workout plan is. With that said, here are some tips that will help you utilize athletic testing to your advantage:

1. Join an Online Athletics Community

Joining a forum or group that is devoted to athletic testing and improvement will give you a resource you can refer to for additional information on the topic, as well as access to experienced members who can provide custom tailored advice in response to your questions. These forums typically have separate sections for different kinds of sports and activities, so you’ll be able to communicate with and obtain knowledge from other athletes and trainers who are experienced in your field. I recently stumbled upon UniversalAthleticTesting.com after seeing one of their ads produced by Orlando Publishing Agency Diamond View Studios, and it is a prime example of an online community that can help you track and improve your fitness progress.

2. Get a Fitness Tracker Wristband

Once you’ve joined a forum or group that is going to give you the support and information needed, it’s time to get yourself a fitness tracking wristband. These devices use a variety of sensors to track your motion and activities and then convert that information into calories burned, miles ran, number of steps taken, heart rate, body temperature and other useful metrics. With so many models available, choosing the best fitness tracker for your needs can be challenging if you’re even slightly indecisive. Be sure to choose one that has appropriate features for the sports or activities you usually perform.

3. Become Familiar with the Benchmarks and Achievements of Others

After you’ve started using your fitness tracker, you’ll be able to post your results to your online community and compare them to the results of other members. Consider taking note of the stats and achievements of other members who have similar weight, height and activity profiles to your own. You don’t want to start out comparing yourself to a professional, but you also don’t want to be comparing your results to amateurs to make yourself feel better. When you know how you’re performing in specific areas and how you compare to others in those areas, it helps you become aware of your strengths and weaknesses.

4. Recognize and Address Areas that Need Work

Finally, now that you’re tracking your own progress and monitoring the progress of others, it will be easy for you to determine which attributes you need to improve, and you’ll have easy access to advice on how to get there. For example, if you know you want to improve your running acceleration, and you see that one of the members is slightly faster at the 100m dash than you, yet is about the same height and weight, you could send them a message to inquire about their training and diet regimen. When you’re aware of what needs to be addressed and you have a large pool of experience and stats to work with, you’d be surprised at how much useful insight you can gain. There are so many ways to make progress, and everyone has different techniques that work for them and for what they’re trying to achieve, so tracking your own progress and inquiring about the training regimen of others is a great way to expand your knowledge on the subject. In a sense, crowdsourcing information like this might even be more effective than hiring a personal trainer.

Stay Consistent and Don’t Forget the Importance of Nutrition

None of the above will do anything to initiate real progress if you fail to stay consistent. Likewise, if you’re not properly fueling your body for training, you might actually be injuring or diminishing yourself. In closing, anybody who is serious about fitness should make activity scheduling, meal planning and nutritional education a part of their daily regimen.