How confident would you be to follow a treatment prescribed by your doctor if they didn’t do a proper examination and assessment of your symptoms, lifestyle, and vitals. Catastrophic results could happen if your doctor followed a boiler plate; one size fits all approach to prescribing your personal treatment. A fitness professional must take the same steps to find out as much as possible about you before prescribing your fitness program.
Getting Important Information about You Before Exercising
In order to ensure safe and predictable results we need to assess vital information. Then and only then, can a professional prescribe a successful program leading to predictable results.
Weight loss is overwhelmingly the main reason people seek out a fitness professional. If we look at the obesity rates, we see scary trends. According to the CDC nearly 1 in 3 Americans is obese. At the same time, most adult Americans are exercising the prescribed amount of times per week. The current recommendations are 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise (walking or playing tennis), or 75 minutes per week of intense exercise (jogging or swimming laps).
More people meeting the recommended exercise, and more people becoming obese at the same time. Obviously, we are doing something wrong. This a multifaceted problem. Sedentary lifestyles, high calorie low nutrient dense foods, wrong type of exercise program, lack of adherence to exercise programs, high levels of social stress all lead to greater obesity rates and all the health problems associated with it.
Not only are obesity rates increasing, so are health risk and injuries from physical inactivity. There is zero doubt about the importance of a proper fitness and wellness program. Where we fall short is prescribing a personalized program. That is where the proper and thorough assessment comes in.
We are multifaceted and complicated creatures. In order to create a safe and effective program we must look at a variety of areas.
What do we measure during movement screening?
We need information like body weight, body fat percentage, height, size of arms, chest, waist hips and thighs. Posture and movement screening gives insight of the body’s structural integrity. Do you have “overactive or underactive muscles”? What is your occupation? What is your family support, schedule, hobbies? What are your normal eating habits? What is the level of commitment to change? What is your history with exercise and nutrition? What medicines are you taking?
As a fitness professional a system of getting this information recording it and reassessing it on a regular basis is truly the key to programming a successful customized program. As a client you should make sure that you choose someone that understands how to acquire and use this information in a professional and caring way.
Get Professional Help that is Personal and Effective – No BS Here
This is the approach that Coach Pete has developed over his 80,000 hours working with men, women and children on their fitness and wellness journeys. He utilizes an integrated system that starts with getting the right information. He uses powerful programs including DOTFIT, POSTURE SCREEN, LEAN SCREEN to record the information and track your success. Then sets up a 100% personalized program. The system includes reassessing on regular intervals to track strengths and challenges. This allows you to keep up with the things that are working and celebrate your success. While adjusting the challenges you may run into.
If you have any questions about getting the assessment done or getting started on your journey please feel free to contact Coach Pete today. I would love to help you on your fitness, weight-loss, and wellness journey.
