Cardiovascular fitness is the ability of the heart and lungs to supply oxygen-rich blood to the working muscles. There have been test created to understand where a person is in their cardiovascular fitness. These people are placed into classifications. Very poor, poor, fair, good excellent and superior. These classifications are given to understand what risk the person is likely to experience and how hard the person will need to train to improve their fitness assessment score. For this assignment I was asked to walk as fast as I can for one mile, and to run as far as I could in 12 minutes. My results showed for the walking assessment that I have a Fair fitness score with 31.17. For running I had a poor fitness score with not being able to run more than 1158 meters in 12 minutes (Makenzie, 2020). I believe that there is some error with in the running test due to the inability to run with a condition that brings pain when moved too much and having asthma. These tests do not accommodate to those types of clients. The walking one would be better for me personally as I could increase that easier than the running one. For other clients it would depend on other factors. These score shows that I am at high risk of heart disease and other health conditions. After being asked to quit my career as a gymnast due to a health condition known as Chondromalacia, I stopped working out completely, which of course lowered my cardiovascular fitness by a lot, creating this score.
Knowing one’s fitness classification is important because it can give the professional the opportunity to help their client prevent the risk that come with poor cardiovascular fitness scores. These classifications help many trainer’s train their clients. Having a lower score can take longer to train due to the client having less endurance to the cardio. Not only do these classifications help understand the risk but it can help the professional learn about the client. For example, my mother has Multiple sclerosis. Her trainer at the time was trying to give her intense workouts to increase her cardiovascular fitness score but my mother could not do them because of her MS affecting everything she does. Walking at times can be difficult because her MS will attack the myelin in parts of her body that react with the nerves within cardiovascular system. Trainers being able to know this kind of information from the client and their classification can create a better workout tailored to the client. According to Sharon A. Plowman and Marilu D. Meredith of The Cooper Institute in Dallas Texas, obesity is associated with high risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. Which are only two of the lists of risk a client can have. With these fitness assessments, professionals can easily implement them with in a workout and get resents fast. One problem within todays society is the talk of body composition. The Cooper Institute states that body composition can be a sensitive issue. Many clients will know of their weight but will not want to know their fitness level or know what risk they could experience but this is less of an issue than having a life threating disease. Having the client also understand their risk is important because they will need to know why it is important for them to change. This can also help find out their VO2 max levels. This is important to know because increasing this can help with the increase of cardiovascular fitness. Knowing these can help the professional and the client reach their goals.
Having poor cardiovascular fitness can imply more risk. Those risk can be that of heart disease, depression, fatty liver, and premature death (Nes & WislØff). Reason being is because the body is not being used to its full potential and not being trained in a healthy way. People like me who have a lower fitness score have far more risk than others because our bodies are not receiving enough oxygen to supply our entire bodies. Clients with good cardiovascular scores will have less risk because their fitness level is within a reasonable and healthy area. These people will have conditions that are not caused by anything fitness related. Such as diseases and conditions that people are born with. Finally, people with excellent fitness score are at even less risk than anyone else but are at risk of other conditions. These would be overuse of muscles and tendons, creating conditions like Chondromalacia and lateral epicondylitis. These people depending on the severity of the overuse, these people could potentially end up like me and go from excellent cardiovascular fitness to poor cardiovascular fitness (Nes & Wisloff). There are always risk no matter what classification the client is in. It just depends on which is more damaging to the persons health. Overuse of tendons and muscles can be rehabilitated and can be used again but to an extent, so these clients can still keep a healthy cardiovascular fitness score, whereas clients with poor fitness scores can get heart disease and other unhealthy conditions that once you have it can be hard to get rid of it or even do simple exercises.
These calculations and field test can be used for my clients as it will help me understand where they are starting. Finding out their classification will give me an estimate of how long and intensity of exercises are need to train the client to get them into a healthier classification. If a client has a very poor fitness classification it will take a lot longer to train their body, whereas someone with an average fitness classification would be less time. These tests will also gain knowledge of the client’s risk and can help motivate the client in improving their fitness classification.
I have learned that first I need to rehabilitate my knees to improve my own fitness classification. I am current in a poor score but I can understand that, because during the running portion of the assignment, I had to pause a couple times as my knees would give out. I took professional help with this assignment as I had my own personal trainer do this with me in case of a medical emergency. My walking assignment was in the fair zone. Since starting at Concordia university, I have been working more on my personal health, I have been trying to increase my physical being. I think am in the fair and poor zones because I stopped caring in my own health after my incident. I have recently gotten into more types of workouts. Such as interval training and continuous training. For me to be better prepared I need to work on my own fitness assessment. I can also use this learning to help my clients achieve their goals.
In conclusion, learning about the risk that comes with having poor cardiovascular fitness has really shown me that I need to find ways to rehabilitate my knees and lungs fast before I cause myself any health conditions. With this learning, I learned that these tests take less than an hour and can be used on clients to help tailor workouts to increase the clients score. These tests can help learn more about the client as well. In the end this assessment was a great way of learning a simple but effective way to help future clients.
Work cited
- Mackenzie, B. (2020, February 23). Rockport Fitness Walking Test. Retrieved from https://www.brianmac.co.uk/rockport.htm
- Mackenzie, B. (2020, February 23). Cooper VO2 max Test. Retrieved from https://www.brianmac.co.uk/gentest.htm
- Nes, B., & Wisloff, U. (n.d.). Navigation. Retrieved March 19, 2020, from https://www.ntnu.edu/cerg/vo2max
- Plowman, S.A. & Meredith, M.D. (Eds.). (2013). Fitnessgram/Activitygram Reference Guide (4th Edition). Dallas, TX: The Cooper Institute. https://www.cooperinstitute.org/vault/2440/web/files/662.pdf
