Six-Minute Test: Distance, Heart Rate and Sustainable Pace

A health-focused endurance test where each student covers as much distance as possible in six minutes by walking, jogging or mixing both, at a pace they can sustain. Along with distance, students record heart rate and the Borg scale, and the goal is to learn to find their own sustainable pace, not to beat anyone.

How to play

1. Explain the test, teach how to take a 15-second pulse at the wrist or neck and review the 6-20 Borg scale (5 min).
2. Warm up for 3 minutes on the 200-meter loop marked with cones every 20 meters, walking first and then easy jogging (3 min).
3. Half the group takes the test while their partner counts laps, notes the final cone and calls out the time every minute (6 min).
4. Afterward, each student takes their pulse, gives their Borg rating and the partner records it; switch roles (2 min).
5. The second half of the group takes the test with the same procedure (8 min).
6. Each student calculates their distance, compares pulse and Borg and answers: could I have kept that pace for ten more minutes? (1 min).

Rules

• You may switch to walking at any time and it does not count as quitting.
• Anyone who feels dizzy, has chest pain or unusual shortness of breath stops and tells the teacher.
• Always pass on the outside of the loop.
• After the test, keep walking for a minute before taking your pulse seated.

Variations

Adaptations

• Wheelchair user: takes the test moving in the wheelchair on a smooth loop and records their own distance.
• Asthma: carries an inhaler, warms up longer and may walk the test.
• Overweight: the focus is on pace consistency and comparison with their own previous test.

Learning goals

• Find and hold a sustainable aerobic pace.
• Relate perceived exertion to heart rate.
• Assess their own endurance from a health perspective.

Equipment for a class of 25

• cones: 20
• stopwatch: 2
• worksheets: 30
• heart rate monitors: 6

Teacher tip

If you have heart rate monitors, use them so students can compare their manual pulse with the real reading. Have a shaded spot and water ready at the end of the test.

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