How to Take the Rockport Walk Test
Walk one flat mile, take your heart rate, and let the calculator turn your numbers into an estimate of your VO2 max and a rating for your age and sex.
The Rockport Walk Test turns one fast mile into an estimate of your cardio fitness. It is never an all-out effort, which makes it a test you can take at any fitness level. This page covers what the test measures, how to take it, and a calculator that does the math for you.
For why this number is worth knowing, read How Strong Is Your Engine?
Who This Test Is For
Coach's Note: The Rockport Walk Test is for people new to training or who cannot run a full mile yet. The Cooper Run Test is for people already training.
Already training? Your test is the 12-minute run: How to Take the Cooper Run Test.
What It Tests
The test estimates your VO2 max, the most oxygen you can take in at an absolute maximum effort. In plain words, it is your cardio fitness: how well your heart and lungs deliver oxygen while you work.
You never have to reach that maximum. The test reads two things from your walk: how fast you cover the mile and how hard your heart is working when you finish. An equation puts those together with your age, sex, and body weight. The faster your mile and the lower your heart rate at the finish, the higher your estimate.
The equation was built and checked against lab measurements in 343 healthy adults ages 30 to 69. SidebarThe study behind the walk test ›
A cardiopulmonary exercise test, also known as a CPX stress test. You are linked to a 12-lead EKG and a breathing mask while being observed by a trained clinician.
One flat mile, your time, and your heart rate at the finish. Your effort gives you an estimate.
What You Need
- A flat, measured mile. A standard track works.
- A timer: a watch or your phone.
- A way to read your heart rate: a watch or a chest strap, or two fingers at your neck or wrist.
- Your body weight, age, and sex for the calculator.
Before You Test
If you have a heart, lung, or kidney condition, diabetes, or chest pain or dizziness with activity, check with your doctor before either test. If you have a joint condition or have been inactive for a while, check with your doctor before the all-out run. Start with the walk.
How to Take the Test
- Find a flat, measured mile. Four laps in the inside lane of a standard track is just under a mile. Flat matters: on a hill the equation cannot tell the climb apart from a weak engine.
- Warm up easy for a few minutes. Do not start cold and do not start hard.
- Walk the mile as fast as you can hold. Walk, do not jog: one foot stays on the ground. Hold the pace to the end. You should finish the last quarter mile at the pace you started, not spent at the half.
- Stop the clock at the mile. That is your first number.
- Take your heart rate the moment you finish. With a watch or a chest strap, read it in your last stretch before you stop. No watch: two fingers at your neck or wrist the moment you stop. Count for 6 seconds and multiply by 10. Do not wait to catch your breath: the number is already falling while you stand there.
- Write down your time and your heart rate, then enter them in the calculator below.
If you are part of Fit Fête, this test is already live as a challenge in the app: The Rockport Walk Test. It walks you through it and does the math for you.
Your Calculator
Enter your numbers exactly as you took them.
Calculator
The Rockport Walk Test
Your result
ml/kg/min
Your VO2 max estimate
This is an educational estimate from a submaximal Rockport walk test, not a clinical measurement, and does not replace medical advice.
Walk estimate: Kline GM, et al. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 1987. Built on 343 healthy adults aged 30 to 69. Reference values: Kaminsky LA, Arena R, Myers J. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 2015 (the FRIEND registry, treadmill cardiopulmonary exercise tests, ages 20 to 79; the standards adopted in ACSM's Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription, 10th and 11th editions). The seven bands are our cut at the 5th, 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th and 95th percentiles; ages 80 and over are rated against the 70 to 79 row.
How to Read Your Result
Your number lands in one of seven bands for your age and sex, cut from the percentiles of a national registry of measured tests. They run from Very Poor to Superior. For example, men aged 30 to 39 reach Average from 42.4 ml/kg/min, Good from 49.2, and Excellent from 56.5.
That is where you start, not a judgment about who you are. The next time you take this test, the only comparison that matters is your number against your number.
Use the same course, the same time of day, and the same warm-up, then walk your measured mile again.
Keep readingWhy is this number worth knowing?How Strong Is Your Engine? → Keep readingAlready training?How to Take the Cooper Run Test →
Spencer Maxwell Shilstone
Founder of MaxWell Nutrition and Shilstone Performance Systems. Spencer works with teams and individuals to help them reach their performance goals. He has the honor and privilege of working with and building integrative performance programs for members of U.S. Army Special Operations Command. Optimum Performance is his column at MaxWell Nutrition.
