Rice Fitness Center Archive

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Knowing Your Body with Fitness Assessments

The one test at Rice you can't fail

Are you about to start a new exercise program? Wouldn't you love to have a way to evaluate the progress you made from the beginning to the end of the program?

Or, are you bored with your current routine? Wouldn't it be nice if you suddenly had new goals and a spark of motivation to get you going?

Maybe you don't exercise at all, and you would like to know any possible health risks you may have.

Chances are that one of these scenarios may sound familiar to you, and having a fitness assessment is the key to getting the results, motivation, or information you need.

Like what you read? Know that Rice offers fitness testing for students for only $5.

Read more about it in the Fitness Testing section.

The Importance of Fitness Testing

Whether your idea of exercise is playing a varsity sport or changing the television channel manually when you lose the remote, it is important to know exactly where your fitness abilities lie.

Participating in a fitness assessment is an important part of identifying your current level of physical fitness. Furthermore, a fitness assessment is designed to aid in the determination of one's physical fitness status relative to age and sex, to assist in developing an exercise program, to identify potential health and injury risks with possible referral to the appropriate health professional, to establish goals and provide motivation and to evaluate progress. Fitness Assessments are voluntary and are not a replacement for a physician's physical. The fitness assessment measures four areas: body composition, cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength and endurance, and joint flexibility.

Body Composition

The Jackson and Pollock 3-Pinch Body Fat Test provides an estimate of body fat based on skinfold pinch measurements taken at the chest, abdomen, and thigh (men) or triceps, suprailiac, and thigh (women) sites.

The Body Mass Index is used to assess weight relative to height and is calculated by dividing body weight in kilograms by height in meters squared (kg/m2). Obesity-related health problems increase beyond a BMI of 25 for most people. A BMI from 25-29 is classified as overweight, and beyond 30 is obese. However, it does not take into account varying body compositions. For example, a heavy weight lifter with a high lean body mass and a large bone structure may be "obese" by the BMI scale.

Waist to hip ratio is an important indicator of health risks. Individuals who carry more abdominal fat are at an increased risk for heart disease, type II diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. Health risks for men are very high when WHR exceeds 0.94 and for women when WHR exceeds 0.82.

CARDIO-RESPIRATORY FITNESS

Cardiorespiratory fitness is related to the ability to perform large muscle, dynamic, moderate-to-high intensity exercise for prolonged periods. It is measured in terms of maximal oxygen uptake (VO2 max), which is the maximum rate at which oxygen is consumed and utilized during exercise.

A submaximal cycle ergometer test is used to measure cardiorespiratory endurance. This test takes advantage of the fact that a linear relationship exists between workload and heart rate: as workload is increased, heart rate will increase in proportion. Thus, by taking two heart rate measures are taken at two different workloads, we can predict the workload - and thus Vo2Max - at the predicted maximal heart rate. This relationship, however, only exists for heart rates above 110 bpm and below 85% of age-adjusted maximal heart rate.

MUSCLE STRENGTH AND ENDURANCE

Muscular fitness, which includes muscular strength and muscular endurance, is important to overall health. It improves or maintains the following:

• The integrity of muscles and tendons, which is related to the risk of injury
• Glucose tolerance, a factor in the most common type of diabetes
• Fat-free body mass and resting metabolic rate, which are related to weight gain and the risk of obesity
• Bone mass, which is related to the risk of osteoporosis. Increases an individual's ability to perform activities of daily living

Muscular strength refers to the maximal force that can be generated by a specific muscle or muscle groups and is assessed by a bent-knee push up test.

Muscular endurance is the ability of a muscle group to execute repeated contractions over a period of time sufficient to cause muscular fatigue, or maintain a specific percentage of maximum voluntary contraction for a prolonged period of time. A curl up test conducted to exhaustion assesses muscular endurance.

FLEXIBILITY

Flexibility is the ability to move a joint through its complete range of motion. It's important in athletic performance and in the ability to carry out the activities of daily living.

Flexibility depends on a number of specific variables, including distensibility of the joint capsule, adequate warm-up, and muscle viscosity. Additionally, tightness of various other tissues such as ligaments and tendons affects the range of motion. Just as muscular strength is specific to the muscles involved, flexibility is joint specific. Therefore, no single test can be used to evaluate total body flexibility. A sit and reach test assesses low back and hip-joint flexibility.