Muzikk Mafias

Assessing Your Fitness

Jul 12, 2010 Uncategorized
Posted by admin

Although there are some variations in the personal training services you can receive, you should expect a comprehensive fitness assessment to kick off any personal training sessions or program. Assessing your fitness will give your trainer the baseline of your fitness level. It will also identify abilities ranging from excellent to poor. A fitness assessment will give you a comparison of improvements over time and allow you to gauge your fitness compared to other males or females your age.

The fitness assessment should begin with a comprehensive health, medical and fitness history. The personal trainer will want to identify things such as family history of disease, personal medical history including surgeries, injuries or any medication. They will also want to know your lifestyle information including your experiences with exercise, your current exercise program, and how many hours per day you sleep and sit as well as any concerns you have.

Once the lifestyle and medical history is assessed and reviewed, personal trainers will next determine which fitness tests are the most appropriate for the client. They typical tests include:

• Resting heart rate
• Blood Pressure
• Cardiovascular test (step test, bike test, treadmill test)
• Strength Test (bench press, squats)
• Muscle Endurance Test (pushups, sit ups)
• Body Composition (weight, body composition, circumference measurements)
• Flexibility (sit and reach, other joint mobility tests)

Additionally, personal trainers may test things such VO2 max, gait or posture analysis or sport specific testing for speed, agility, accuracy and so on.

Fitness can be re-assessed as often as a weekly scale weight or as long as 6 weeks apart to see measurable change. Knowing your re-assessment date is important to keep you on track to reaching your goals.

All of the information gained in a fitness assessment is confidential and only shared between you and the personal trainer. You can give permission to release the information to your doctor or other professionals. You will typically receive an electronic report with your results that also gives recommendations for improvements.

While engaging in a fitness assessment may not be a great experience the first time around, the re-assessment is a totally different experience as you are measuring significant improvements in results.