Exercise Screening and Assessment Flashcards
What is the riskiest part of exercise?
When someone is beginning/resuming exercise after a period of inactivity
Why might exercise be “dangerous” for some?
- Arrhythmias (cardiac arrhythmia)
- Acute exercise stress eg. imbalance in oxygen supply and demand, shortened diastole, sodium/potassium changes, increased catecholamines (sympathetic response due to exercise)
- Immediate post-exercise eg. decreased venous return (important to gradually cool down) and decreased BP
What can you do to reduce the risks of exercise?
- Pre-participation screening
- Medical history
- Signs and symptoms
Why is pre-participation physical activity screening important?
- Identify those with medical contraindications for performing PA
- Identify those who should receive a medical evaluation/clearance prior to performing PA
- Identify those who should participate in a medically supervised PA programme
- Identify those with other health/medical concerns
What is the goal of pre-participation physical activity screening
Reduce the likelihood of unwanted medical events during physical activity
What are some factors that may be present in exercise screening athletes?
- Cardiac problems
- Respiratory issues (asthma)
- Metabolic Issues (type 1 or 2 diabetes)
- Musculoskeletal issues (previous or existing injury)
- Psychological issues (anxiety, depression)
Why is cardiac screening controversial?
- Not 100% accurate
- Athletes can often have “normal” variations in 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) (a lot of money and effort to find nothing)
- Can cost athletes their career as a professional
Who shouldn’t be exercising?
- Acute systemic infection eg. virus, inflammatory, viral condition
- Severe atrial hypertension (a systolic blood pressure higher than 150-160 means no exercise)
- Faster or slower HR
What is the COVID-19 return to play?
- If someone has been asymptomatic, as long as they’ve had a 10 day stand down, they should be fit to play or resume activity
- Someone with moderate symptoms are recommended to be cleared by their physician before they resume exercise
What is informed consent?
- Purpose/explanation of test
- Risks and discomforts
- Responsibilities of participant
- Benefits to be expected
- Questions
- Use of medical records
- Freedom of consent/voluntary
Why test athletes?
- Collect baseline data (identify strengths and weaknesses)
- Rank for selection purposes
- Predicting future performances
- Evaluating training programme effectiveness
- Tracking performance over time
- Assigning and manipulating training dosages
Why test general/clinical populations?
- Collect baseline data
- Educate clients about their present health/fitness status
- Risk stratify
- Identify specific deficits
- Provide data to develop appropriate prescription
- Evaluate programme effectiveness
- Motivate clients by establishing attainable health/fitness goals
What are the components of fitness? (10)
- Cardiorespiratory Fitness
- Muscular strength
- Muscular endurance
- Flexibility
- Agility
- Coordination
- Balance
- Power
- Reaction time
- Speed
What is cardiorespiratory fitness?
The ability of the circulatory and pulmonary system to supply oxygen during sustained PA
- Direct measure: VO2max test
- Indirect measure: Beep test, mile run/walk
What is muscular strength?
The ability of muscle to exert force
- Computerised dynamometry: gold standard but expensive and time consuming
- Handheld dynamometry: cheaper, quicker, prone to bias
- 1RM
What is muscular endurance?
The ability of muscle to continue to perform without fatigue eg. Prone hold, press ups, sit to stand test
What is flexibility?
The range of motion available at a joint
- Direct measure: Goniometer
- Indirect measure: Back scratch test
What is agility?
The ability to change the position of the body in space with speed and accuracy
What is speed?
The ability to perform a movement within a short period of time
What are some fitness tests for elderly?
- Timed completion of chair sit-to-stand
- Time completion of arm curls
- Chair sit-and-reach test
- Back scratch test
- Timed up and go test
- Timed walk test
What are considerations for testing older adults?
- Treadmill vs cycle ergometer (include a warm-up and cool-down)
- Lower starting workloads necessary for cardiorespiratory fitness and strength testing
- Be vigilant with signs and symptoms monitoring
- Have an appreciation for how medications may alter response to exercise
What’s important when choosing an appropriate assessment?
- The client: preferences, values, concerns, expectations
- Best external evidence: RCTs and meta-analyses, clinical guidelines
- Your expertise: degree, experiences
What are some other considerations when selecting a test?
- Relevant
- Internally Valid
- Reliable (reproducible)
- Practical
- Presentation
