Fitness testing
Reasons for fitness testing
Fitness testing is to establish your base level capacity, abilities and strengths as well as weaknesses to develop a appropriate program tailored to your specific needs. Whether this is for body shape, muscle strength, speed, flexibility or just general fitness it is still a valuable tool to establish your base level fitness and status. The running type test are actually more specific to runners but is a good indication of lung, heart ad muscle fitness
Specifics on fitness testing
General guidelines for testing and how they work
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Health related aspects of testing which are normally related to diet and can effect your ability to recover form exercise, skin quality, heart health, vascular health, bone density and immunity to name a few. These can sometimes be seen and can also show up in conditions such as circulatory (blood flow) or heart problems,skin conditions, slow metabolism (weight gain: caused by insulin resistance), organ failure (cirrhosis of liver due to fatty liver caused by alcohol or incorrect diet such as too much sugar and carbohydrate)
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Flexibility which is from a lack of stretching and can increase risk of injury to muscle, joints and tendons. This can impede proper running technique and limit range of motion of limbs around the primary joint
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Vascular and heart strength (cardiovascular), can also be a lack of basic and intense cardiovascular exercise can lead to increased (HR) heart rate and sluggish blood flow
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Power and muscular strength these are generally improved by doing calisthenics body weight exercise or weights (resistance exercise)
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Muscular endurance, can be important when doing any sport involving hours of constant state exercise such as running, rowing, mountain climbing etc
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More on fitness testing
This test should be done after the questionnaire given to all potential students; the questionnaire covers most health issues and training goals etc.
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The main emphasis for the Functional health assessment is to orientate the client to their present health status. To use this document, you will need extensive understanding of anatomy. Only use those areas where you have the appropriate knowledge.
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This will also give the fitness program designer a guideline to work off so that the program doesn’t over stress the client early on in the process of getting into peak physical health and condition.
This is not to assess the person’s disease state or to diagnose any illness but to assess their holistic health which will affect their potential for intense training and performance. Almost all sickness and disease start with a deficiency or dietary problem, catching it early is the key. I say almost all because you do have heredity diseases that can affect the client without themselves or the trainer being aware of them. Keep in mind that some vaccinations can also have negative side effects especially with babies and sometimes with adults.
The following are guidelines to follow so that each client gets a comprehensive test and a complete review of their health status.
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NB no maximal cardio stress test for person over 50 years old without a medical clearance
These tests can be done 4 times over a period of month, then as needed maybe once a month or as the trainer feels is necessary to get a balanced view of all the basic vital signs and indicators that allow the trainer to assess the athletes state of fitness.
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Types of tests used to assess the person abilities and general well- being
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Cardiovascular test these are used one or more to test specific areas
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Swim
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Run
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Cycle
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Sprint walk sprint (speed play 10 -20 )
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Muscle endurance, there are many muscle groups that can be tested
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Power muscular strength
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Flexibility
Above are some of the tests we can perform, some test can be performed out on the training area such as a park but this will be limited to only those test tat doesn't require technical equipment
Costing
Cost for fitness testing
The cost will vary depending on the needs and duration of the testing
Most comprehensive testing is going to be fairly long winded as determining the persons muscle endurance, strength (max muscle capacity to move weight), cardiovascular strength (normally cycle, run, swim) depending on the type of athlete. Flexibility is needed to develop a full and sound techniques whether running or swimming.
Full testing could be as long as 2-3 sessions of 2-3 hours for a serious athlete that wanted to know all the parameters so as to make or develop a detailed strategy for fitness endeavors.
Full test 2-3 hours which will cover most but not all aspects of fitness
These will be
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Cardiovascular can be VO2 max testing the bodies’ ability to take in and utilize oxygen
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Run test to test the athlete’s ability to sustain high intensity cardiovascular, the test is not to establish the person VO2 max but to establish a bassline for future training
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Recovery test, is to establish how fast the person reacts to sustained and intense short sprints such as 10 times 400 meters
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Working personR650 for a full test
Student R250
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Muscle endurance
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This will indicate your strength in which area is being tested for instance chest muscle will be tested by doing either a push up or bench press and legs could be teste by doing a squat or leg extension
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Back muscles could be tested by Lat pull down or chins, latissimus pull downs will be more applicable to most persons as a large section of the pubic cannot do a bodyweight pull up (chins)
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For individual test that take 45min or less
Working persons R 250
Students R85
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Program design is separate from the testing phase
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Complexed as for top athletes R650 and R250 for students
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Simple programs such as for weight loss R 350 and R200 for students
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