Men’s Fitness Australia – June 2017

How does your fitness rank alongside a pro athlete? MF takes the Powerade

Powerscore Challenge with sports stars Billy Slater and Mitchell Johnson.

Do you measure up?

T

he AFL,

NRL,

A-League,

Cricket

Australia and Super

Rugby all use

high-tech physical

teststoassessthe

power and fitness of

potential recruits and

current players. But

52 MEN’S FITNESS JUNE 2017

The Powerade

Powerscore Challenge

enables regular guys to

pit their fitness levels

against elite sportsmen.

howwouldtheaverage

bloke in the street

measureupcompared

to these uber-fit

sporting stars?

Thanks to the

Powerade Powerscore

Challenge, we can now

answer that question.

Based on acceleration

and speed, agility,

power and endurance

capacity, the Challenge,

developed in conjunction

with the NSW Institute of

Sport, enables regular

guys to pit their fitness

levels against the best

proathletesonanational

leaderboard.

AtNorthSydneyOval,

the MF staff have been

invitedtotake

the Challenge

alongside Melbourne

Storm fullback Billy

Slater and Australian

fast bowling legend

Mitchell Johnson.

It’sadauntingtask—

Slater is a two-time

winner ofAustralia's

GreatestAthleteand

Johnson is a deadset

fitness machine. But

the first test— a vertical

leap to assess power

— is straight forward.

The agility test is

much harder because

youhavetoremember

which way to swerve

andturnbetween

poles5mapartover

20m: never easy when

your body's under

stress. Cracking six

secondsbagsyoua

scoreofaround185

outof250.

The speed test is

ameasureofpure,

grass-burning

velocity over 40m.

But it's the 20m

multistage test, better

knownasthebeeptest,

that sorts the men

from the boys. Used

as fitness criteria for

admission into the

army (7.5 is the score you

needforthat)it'salast

chance to bump up stats

if you've bummed out in

the previous disciplines

andyourrivalsare

surging ahead.

TheMFstaffersscore

between eight and nine

(a Powerscore total of

145-160), which means

they've run 80-90 times

between two lines 20m

apart—notabadeffortin

the hot afternoon sun.

Butit'snothing

compared to Slater’s 198

and Mitchell’s 215 out

ofapossible250.Indeed,

Slater’sgrandtotalof

930putshimontopof

thenationalleaderboard,

aheadofJohnsonon881.

TheMFboysrecord

respectable totals in

the 625-720 range,

suggesting they're

performing at a level

65-75% of an elite

sportsman.

But you could

probably flog them.

To t e s t y o u r s e l f

against the best, go

topowerade.com.au.■

MF’sAshGraytests

his power in the

vertical leap.

MF’s Tim Fernandes puts in.

Mitchell Johnson (middle) and Billy Slater (right) go hard in the beep test.

The beep test is a killer.

●Game Changers The experiment