As a personal trainer what fitness assessments are you utilizing with your high risk clientele?
In addition to recognizing risks, it’s also important to recognize the individual GOALS and then use appropriate assessments.
How many people – healthy or otherwise – are really interested in their VO2max? Lactate threshold? Heart rate recovery time? Bench press 1RM? Degrees of internal rotation of [name your favorite joint]?
While there are numerous reasons for trainers to have understanding of these (and other) objective measurement tools, in my experience, most people have very subjective goals – they simply want to “look” or “feel” better.
When “feeling” is what’s most important, measure it! Start with a question like “how do you FEEL about your nutrition today?” or “how do you FEEL your workout went today?”
Have ’em answer on a scale of 1 to 10… or a sad-to-smiley face continuum 🙂 Watch how the trend changes over time.
When “look” is the goal, how much risk is there in taking regular progress photos? Using a ‘standardized’ favorite outfit as a measuring stick?
Instead of using high-risk – or inappropriate – assessment tools just because YOU like/understand them, the latest corporate buzz-speak for this is “meet them where they are.”
If fitness really is a journey, you can use your other assessment tools as strategic “lookout points” along the way.
-JS-
My assessment take many things into consideration. My question to you; Do you mean Risk Stratification (7 Stratifications defined by ACSM), Injury? Surgery? Post-Op? Meds? Risk assessment can encompass many things, thus my assessments encompass gathering information on all of these. This may determine what “physical testing” I do if any at all. Most importantly I modify my program based on this information.
When I meet a new client for an assessment, I have already talked to them and thereby have determined whether I will require a physician’s approval. Even if it appears in the conversation that it may not be necessary, I tell people that I may require it after all if anything comes up during the assessment.
For the assessment itself, I have a whole ‘laundry list’ of items that I like to determine and assess. What I always do is taking pictures against a grid, take a video for a gait analysis, take blood pressure and use the Futrex for determining body composition. But even here are already the first modification: if I deal with very overweight clients, they may not be comfortable having their picture taken. I may also forego the body composition because at high levels of obesity it can be inaccurate. There is a piont when it does not add much to my knowledge and only makes a new client feel uncomfortable.
So to summarize my answer: it depends.
As for other assessments: I decide on the spot which to do or not. My rule is to err on the side of safety. I cannot remember the last time I had somebody do push-ups for 30 seconds.
On the other hand: I like to compile as many ‘tangible’ data as possible so that I (and – more importantly – the client) can see measurable progress.
