This was highlighted recently when 27-year-old Welsh man Adam Rumming died while performing the bleep test as part of an army fitness test at the Sandhurst Academy where elite British Army officers are trained.

He is believed to have had an undiagnosed heart problem, which is often the case for sudden death during exercise in seemingly healthy young people.

If you are ever in charge of conducting fitness testing, particularly exhausting tests, you should exclude anyone with a fever or other risky medical condition, or even better get them to complete a PAR-Q (Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire).

But that is not all – as well as running the standard Beep Test, the software allows the user to design their own test using a few simple commands in a script file. This can be useful for creating intermittent recovery type fitness tests (such as the yo-yo test) or combining an activity with fitness testing or conditioning. With the simple commands of Start, Run, Rest and Repeat, all types of beep type tests can be replicated. For added flexibility the lap distance and running speeds can also be adjusted for different sports and has even been adapted for swimming.

For more info see this page about the Team Beep Test Software.