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Beep Test (Multistage Fitness Test)

Today, I’m here to teach you how to beat the beep test. When I run the beep test, I head down to my local cricket pitch because it’s a flat 20-meter surface ready for you to run your test. 

Okay, now let’s head into my top three tips for how to beat the beat test. 

So my first tip for how to beat the beep test focuses on turning. 

Now, when many people are running the beep test, all they focus on is getting to the end of the shuttle they’re running at the time. So instead, think about how you will start your next shuttle while finishing the previous one. 

For me, when coming into the end of my shuttle, I’m looking at my last three to four steps and thinking, “How can I get my foot onto that line and turn around, get ready to go, and be in a position where I’m waiting for that beep, and I’m prepared to push off and get running again?”

So many people will either miss the line, go over it, or make a loop. So come into the line, put your foot on it, and get ready to turn because you’re saving yourself two to three steps on every shuttle. 

Now, that seems like a lot with just one or two shuttles, but when you’re trying to get to level 6.5 or 7.5, you’re running a lot of shuttles. 

You’re running anywhere from 55 to 70 shuttles, which works out to be a lot more distance than you’re covering, and you’re just going to make the test harder for yourself. So, coming into the line, get your foot on it, turn around, and get ready to start the next shuttle.

My second tip for how to beat the beep test focuses on timing. 

Now, the beep test is something that everyone always stresses about. So many times, I get asked, “How can I beat the beep test?” I’m worried; I’m stressed that I’m not going to make it through; I’m concerned; I’m not fit enough. How can I get there? e.t.c. 

Getting to level 7.5 for the beep test takes only seven minutes of your life—no more than that. So seven minutes of your life is pretty small in the grand scheme of things. 

So when it comes to actually running the beep test, you should grab yourself a digital watch. Now, I don’t care if it’s a $10 watch from BW or Kmart; make sure you’ve got one that you can hit a button at the start of that test and check as you’re running along. 

Please don’t go with analog because it’s far too hard to keep up with. Instead, make sure you’ve got a digital watch. And what you can do is, as you’re running along, every test level takes you about one minute. 

One of the things that I find hardest when running the test is that you always need to figure out how many levels you will have. So, when you first start, there are seven on level one, and you think, “Yeah, I’m cruising.” But, then, when you get to about levels four and five, you’re thinking, Oh, my God, it’s level eight, it’s level nine. How many levels am I going to have in this? 

If you’ve got a watch on and hit the button at the start to start your stopwatch, you’ve got a pretty good idea of where you are, which means you’ve got a pretty good idea of when the next level is coming up.

And it also gives you a good idea of how long you’ve been running because you know that all you’ve got is seven minutes, and that’s it; seven minutes, and you’re done; you’ve passed your test; you’re in. 

My third and final tip for how to beat the beep test focuses on breathing. 

Now, we all know that the beep test is hard, and one of the reasons why it’s so hard is that it gets faster the further into the test you go. This is because it’s designed to make you work harder and harder the longer you run the test. 

As a result, it fatigues your respiratory system, and you start to breathe heavily. So now, what many people will do when they start to get tired is they’ll begin to breathe in and out through their mouth. 

The problem with this is that your body must work much harder to ensure you’re getting the oxygen you need. And you bring in far too much oxygen, and then your body has to deal with it. 

So the best way to deal with this is to focus on breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth. This seems challenging because we were all kids and were always told to do that at school; sometimes, when you’re exhausted, that’s hard to keep doing. 

When you get to the end of that level and hear the unique beeps that kick up to the next one, I want you to take a really deep breath in your mouth. What that will do is focus on getting a bunch more oxygen in. It’ll give you much extra energy to get through that next level. But then you’ll also go straight back into that, focusing on breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth.

So to recap, my three tips for how to beat the beep test are turning, timing, and breathing. I can only guarantee that these will make you beat the beep test if you have trained. In addition, these will get you an extra level and a half if you focus on hitting the three things we discussed. 

However, remember that there is absolutely no substitute for training. And the best way to train for the beep test is to run the beep test. 

George N.
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