The beep test, officially the multistage fitness test, is a 20-meter shuttle run where audio beeps come faster and faster until you can no longer keep pace, giving you a precise, repeatable benchmark of your fitness. In this Physical Friday I explain how to run the beep test anywhere you have 20 meters, what scores mean, and why writing down benchmarks like this is the thing that keeps you motivated and improving in the gym and in life.
Watch now: press play on the video above and follow along.
The beep test, also called the multistage fitness test or bleep test, is a shuttle run between two lines 20 meters apart. An audio track plays beeps, and you must reach the opposite line before each beep. The beeps start slow at level one and get closer and closer together as the levels climb, so you run the same distance with less and less time. You keep going until you can no longer keep pace, and your final level is your score.
Measure out 20 meters anywhere — a driveway, a gym, a parking lot — and draw a line at each end. Then play the beep test audio, which is free on YouTube; the version I use has millions of views. Run to the far line on each beep, wait, and turn around on the next beep. That is the whole setup, which is why this test is so repeatable: the environment is exactly the same every time.
Most people land somewhere between level 7 and level 12. Advanced athletes get into the 11s and sometimes the 12s, and professional athletes can reach the 13s and beyond. I heard of one professional soccer player making it into level 16, and I do not know anybody who has reached level 17. The point is not the number itself; it is whether your number is better than your last number.
Because seeing progress is what keeps you motivated. If you run the same mile a minute faster than six months ago, or lift ten more pounds, you know your training is working and you push even harder. If the numbers stall or go backwards, that is your signal to change your approach, your diet, or your recovery. Without a measurable, repeatable benchmark, you are guessing, and guessing kills motivation fast.
Write them down, every time. A score you forget cannot motivate you. I use Beyond the Whiteboard, which organizes every workout result so when I return to something I have done 15 or 20 times, I can see all my results in graph form and tell instantly whether I am progressing or sliding. A notebook works just as well. The tool matters less than the habit of recording the number.
The gym is a microcosm of life. In both, you need measurable tests you can return to and try to beat. In the gym that might be the beep test; in life it might be how your business or relationships compare to five years ago. When the data shows you have improved, you know you are on a great path. When it shows you have slipped, you know exactly what to work on. Getting a little bit better every single day gets you a long way down any road.
Here is the exact beep test format I used this week. You can do it in your driveway, a gym, or anywhere you have 20 meters of flat ground.
Come back to the test regularly, or even once a year, and try to beat your number. Either you confirm your training is working or you learn it is time to change something.
If you keep grinding on a diet you hate and the scale never budges, you lose motivation quickly, but the moment one pound comes off, then two, then four, you have measurable proof and the motivation to continue. The same thing happens for me with workouts: beating a previous score by one second on a ten-mile run, or adding ten pounds to a lift, fires me up to do better in every area. I get into why measurement drives motivation in the episode, so press play above.
I put my workouts into Beyond the Whiteboard, and it organizes all my results so that when I come back to a workout I have done 15 or 20 times, I can see everything in a graph. I can tell whether I am making progress and should keep doing what I am doing, or moving backwards and need to change my approach. The most important thing is that the result gets recorded somewhere; otherwise an improvement from 9.2 to 9.6 means nothing to you. I explain my system in the episode, so press play above.
Level one feels almost silly: jog 20 meters, wait, jog back. Skip ahead ten minutes and forty-two seconds and the thing has become relentless. By level 11 the rest is nearly gone, and by level 17, a level I do not know anybody who has reached, the beeps are stacked on top of each other. The same distance, less and less time. I play clips from the actual audio in the episode so you can hear it ramp up, so press play above.
So much of what I like about the gym is that it works exactly like life. You look at your past performance, you see the mistakes, you correct them, and the data shows you getting better and better. Then you make new mistakes and learn from those. Life works the same way, even though the benchmarks are sometimes grayer, like whether you are handling your relationships better than you did before. I unpack this analogy in the episode, so press play above.
The beep test is one of the best general gauges of fitness I know, because it is free, it needs nothing but 20 meters of ground, and it is exactly repeatable. That repeatability is the whole magic. Same course, same audio, same rules, and the only variable left is you.
Whatever benchmark you choose, write the result down and come back to it. We are trying to get a little bit better every single day, on the road to fitness, on the road to business mastery, on the road to wherever. Press play above and I will walk you through it.
beep test · multistage fitness test · 20-meter shuttle run · Beyond the Whiteboard · benchmark workouts · one-mile run · progress tracking · mental toughness · Physical Friday · Saltwater Experience
Physical Friday is my weekly fitness series for fishing guides, anglers, hunters, and outdoorsmen — the training, nutrition, and mindset to stay in the game for life. Watch and listen to every Physical Friday episode from Tom Rowland.
I'm Tom Rowland, a professional fishing guide based in the Florida Keys, host of the Tom Rowland Podcast, and the longtime host of the Saltwater Experience television show. Physical Friday is the podcast's weekly fitness series, where I share the workouts, training formats, and mindset lessons that keep guides, anglers, hunters, and outdoorsmen strong enough to do what they love for life.
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