The Importance of Client Fitness Assessments

Are you thinking about commencing a new exercise program or already exercising but have stopped seeing or getting results? Your road to fitness and continued results starts from where you are, today. If you want to see new and on going results it’s a good idea to know where you’ve been, where you are, and where you’d like to go!

To determine where you’d like to go, write down your fitness goals and go through these on a regular basis or as often as they change with your trainer. To determine where you’ve been, ensure your trainer is up to date with your previous exercise and medical history from the start of your program when you complete your exercise safety screening form. To determine where you are, you will be required to let your trainer complete a series of tests and evaluations at your first session and ongoing every 8-10 weeks of consistent training.

Participating in regular fitness assessments is an important part of identifying your current level of health & fitness. Furthermore, a fitness assessment is designed to determine a clients health & fitness status relative to age and sex, to assist in a trainer developing the correct exercise program targeted at your goals, to identify potential health and injury risks with possible referral to the appropriate allied health professional if required, to establish goals and provide motivation and to evaluate progress. Fitness Assessments are not a replacement for a GP physical. The fitness assessment measures four areas of importance: body composition, aerobic endurance fitness, strength and flexibility.

Ongoing fitness testing can help make your goals a reality, by organizing your workouts and verifying your workouts are properly designed by your trainer. This will allow your trainer to take an objective look at your program to see what you are doing well at, and also not so well.

Results orientated programs depend heavily on regular assessments and changes where merited.

The Four area’s of testing

1. Body Composition (how much fat, bone and muscle do you have?)
2. Strength Testing (how strong or weak are your muscles?)
3. Aerobic Endurance (how strong is your heart?)
4. Flexibility (do you move around easily without any major limitations or pain?)

So please keep in mind that your ongoing assessments help to keep track your efforts, and encourage you to not let them go to waste, allowing you realise your ultimate fitness vision.

Yours in health & fitness
Jacqueline Zonneveld
Director