Personal Fitness Professional - October 2008 - (Page 26)

The Anatomy of a Prime tips on properly assessing your clients Maybe it’s been awhile since you took your certiﬁcation test. Maybe the club you work at doesn’t require comprehensive assessments before you bring on a new client. Or maybe you’d be hard-pressed to deﬁne RMR or VO2 max. Sounds like a good time to review the pieces of the ﬁtness assessment! Recommit to bringing currently unused portions back into your own assessment repertoire, if for nothing more than to prove, on paper, that your services really have improved the health and appearance of your clients. normal, pre-hypertensive or in one of two grades of hypertension. The cardiac rate or pulse is most commonly obtained either via the carotid or radial pulse with a slight palpation with the index and middle ﬁngers for periods of 10 to 60 seconds to determine if the client has a slow, normal or fast heart rate. The respiratory rate is generally obtained by observing the chest and/or abdomen rise and fall over a one-minute period with the goal of determining if the breathing rate is slow, normal or fast. The vital signs measurements are critical in determining exercise prescription and knowing when it is appropriate to refer the client to a primary care provider or specialist due to possible underlying medical conditions. FITNESS ASSESSMENT By Geoffrey Miller health screening to make sure that he/she is capable of completing the resting, submaximal and maximal assessment. Commonly used forms are both the Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire (PAR-Q) and the Informed Consent/Release of Liability forms. The PAR-Q creates some conﬂict and potential liability for the ﬁtness professional as the PAR-Q was originally intended for those who plan on participating in a moderate level of exercise, which is well below the focus of most ﬁtness assessments. Within the past few years, a collaboration between the American Heart Association and the American College of Sports Medicine yielded a more comprehensive “AHA/ACSM Health/Fitness Facility Pre-participation Screening Questionnaire” that creates a better blanket of preventative coverage for the trainer. The Informed Consent/Release of Liability form is subjective to the interpretation of the individual, the state and sometimes the county, so be sure to seek local legal consultation in preparation of this form. And be sure that whatever form you use, make sure it requires clients to list all supplements and medications they take as these items could aﬀect blood pressure, pulse and energy levels. Fitness Forms 101 Prior to beginning any ﬁtness assessment, have your client complete a basic BASIC COMPONENTS OF A FITNESS ASSESSMENT ß The pre-participation screening ß Basic vital signs ß Body composition ß Limit or power strength ß Agility ß Speed ß Muscular endurance ß Cardiovascular endurance ß Flexibility ß A functional movement begin the assessment with the measurement of vital signs. Conduct vital signs measurements ﬁrst at rest as both a screening for cardiovascular risk factors and as a baseline against current norms. You’ll also use this measurement as reﬂection for future comparison. These consist of three basic components: blood pressure, pulse and breathing patterns. For better accuracy, make sure clients haven’t used tobacco and/or caﬀeine products at least three hours prior to the measurements. The screening for blood pressure is essentially to ﬁgure out if the client could be classiﬁed as Checking Vital Signs Once a health history, physical readiness and release of liability is documented, assessments in relation to the body composition. The objective of these assessments is to rule out any kind of cardiovascular risk factors and provide a baseline to reﬂect against. The basic areas are height, weight, circumference and body fat measurements. The height and weight measurements can be used for the BMI, which is a basic screening tool for cardiovascular risk factors, although not totally accurate for actual body composition. The circumference measurements can be broken down to two basic uses: baselines for general girth and cardiovascular risk factor identiﬁcation. Both can be reﬂected against at a later time. Body fat composition is an essential tool in determining health risk factors, showing client body composition change, even when weight hasn’t necessarily changed, and indicating program readjustment. The body fat analysis uses methods such as calipers, BIA, hydrostatic, air displacement and circumference. Body Composition Next are the morphologic 26 OCTOBER2008 · WWW.FIT-PRO.COM http://WWW.FIT-PRO.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Personal Fitness Professional - October 2008

Personal Fitness Professional - October 2008 Contents Letter from the Editor, Writers Current Controversies Combating with Obesity Pilates and Yoga for Athletes New! The Balancing Act The Top Prize Building a Base of Special Populations Datebook The Success Image The Anatomy of a Fitness Assessment Branding Training Ruts Product Profile New on the Market

Personal Fitness Professional - October 2008

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