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How the Fitness Score works (and why it never goes down)
The Fitness Score is one number for overall fitness. It’s built from your bests and your finished workouts, so it can only go up. Here’s the math.
General information, not medical advice. Check with a doctor before starting a new program, especially with an injury or a medical condition.
Four parts
Score = strength + bodyweight + cardio + effort. Each part is either an all-time best (a heavier lift, more reps, a faster run) or a running total (finished workouts, distance). Bests only move up and totals only add, so a deload, an injury, a lighter week or time off never removes a point.
Strength: one best per movement
For each set you log, Aurek estimates a one-rep max from the weight, the reps and how hard it was, using a percentage-of-max table by reps and effort, the same table it uses to plan your weights [1, 2]. Each movement family (horizontal press, squat, hinge, overhead press, row, pulldown and a few accessory groups) scores its single best lift, so ten curl variations count as one curl.
To compare different lifts, each one-rep max is turned into a bench-press equivalent. The squat is divided by 1.55, the deadlift by 1.8 and the overhead press by 0.7: the average ratios in the app’s strength standards for men and women at every level. Then: bench-equivalent 135 lb = 10 points, and every 5 lb adds 1. Below 110 lb the points start slowly, so a first 95 lb bench is still worth 2.5.
Bodyweight
Your best set in each family: 8 pull-ups, 12 dips or 30 push-ups = 10 points, rising in a straight line up to three times that. Weighted reps are turned into extra bodyweight reps with the same percentage table.
Cardio
Runs are compared as a 5K using Riegel’s formula, which estimates how race times scale with distance [3]. A 45:00 5K is 0 points, 30:00 is 10, 25:00 is 16 and 20:00 is 25. Your longest run adds 10 × (miles ÷ 6.2)^0.8 (a 10K = 10), and every mile adds 0.1. Rides, swims and rucks have their own scales.
Effort
Every finished workout or cardio session of at least 10 minutes or a mile earns about 1 point: about 0.5 for a short or easy one and up to 2 for a long, hard one, at most 2.5 a day. Training four times a week adds roughly 200 points a year.
Keeping it fair
- A best that jumps more than 15% in one session counts up to +15% until another day confirms it.
- Values beyond human records are ignored as typos.
- Maxes you type in count toward your total, never toward this week’s points or the weekly squad boards.
Why only up?
Because the score is about what you’ve built, not how you feel this week. A deload week, a cold or a holiday shouldn’t look like failure. Readiness handles the day-to-day; the Fitness Score keeps the long view.
Want a number? Work out your estimate with the same formulas.
Sources
- Helms ER, Cronin J, Storey A, Zourdos MC. Application of the repetitions in reserve-based rating of perceived exertion scale for resistance training. Strength and Conditioning Journal. 2016;38(4):42–49.
- Zourdos MC, et al. Novel resistance training–specific rating of perceived exertion scale measuring repetitions in reserve. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2016;30(1):267–275.
- Riegel PS. Athletic records and human endurance. American Scientist. 1981;69(3):285–290.
Written by the Aurek team. This post describes how the app works today; the app’s own “Why?” sheets show the same numbers.