Week 5: Type of Fitness & Assessment of Musculoskeletal Fitness Flashcards
What is the definition of Physical Fitness (PF)?
Indication of ability to perform physical activity (PA)
How do physical activity levels influence physical fitness?
- Low levels of PA typically lead to low levels of PF.
- High levels of PF are associated with specific exercise training.
How is physical fitness measured and why is it easier to measure than physical activity?
- PF measures are often used as proxy indicators of regular PA levels
- Pedometres and accelerometers have improved the capacity to measure PA
What is Cardio-Respiratory Fitness (CRF) and what does it indicate?
- Indicates the capacity of the body to delivery oxygen to tissues for ATP production (VO2) and remove metabolites (eg. CO2)
- High levels reduce risk of CV disease (type II diabetes, cancer)
What factors can compromise CRF?
- Presence of respiratory or cardiovascular disease.
- Inability to activate skeletal muscle, as seen in conditions like stroke, multiple sclerosis (MS), and spinal cord injury (SCI).
What is Musculoskeletal Fitness and what does it include?
- It includes strength, power, strength endurance and flexibilty
- It influences posture and balance
What factors can compromise musculoskeletal fitness?
Bone/joint diseases and neuromuscular diseases can compromise musculoskeletal fitness
How does sports performance influence body composition?
Sports performance generally requires higher levels of muscle and lower levels of fat compared to the general population
What are the main purposes of Physical Fitness Testing? (8)
- Assess current health status
- Monitor rehabilitation
- Assess fitness for work/employment
- Identify strength & weaknesses
- Assist in setting training goals
- Influence training program design
- Provide motivation for exercise
- Monitor training program
What are the requirements of a good fitness test?
- Specificity: test assess as a specific known component of fitness
- Validity: test measures the component of fitness that is claimed
- Objectivity: same result is obtained regardless of who conducts the test
- Reliability: same result is obtained if test is repeated within a few days
What considerations must be taken into account when conducting a fitness test?
- Time of day
- Environmental conditions
- Sensitivity
- Nutrition & hydration
- Medications
What are the most common fitness tests for the general population?
- Submaximal CRF tests
- Strength endurance test
- Flexibility
- Body composition
What are the most common fitness tests for the sports population?
- Maximal strength and power widely assessed
- Anaerobic tests, speed, and agility
What are the most common fitness tests for kids?
- CRF: Beep test
- Strength endurance test more common than strength tests
- Flexibility
- Stork stand for balance
What are the most common fitness tests for older or clinical populations?
- 6 min walk test (6MWT)
- 10-metre walk speed
- Sit-to-stand
What factors influence the safety of fitness testing?
- Influenced by genetics & medical history
- Risk greater in sedentary and/or inactive population
- Maximal effort tests pose greater risk that submaximal tests
- Risk hiigher during environmental extremes
What are the types of muscular fitness assessments?
- Strength: maximum capacity to generate force
- Power: the rate of performing work
- Strength endurance: the capacity to sustain repeated submaximal muscle contractions or a single static (isometric) contraction
- Flexibility
- Posture
- Balance
What are the types of strength testing?
- Isometric: the joint angle and muscle length do not change during contraction
- Isokinetic: velocity of movement is constant, but force varies
- Isotonic: tension in the muscle stays the same despite change in muscle length
What is the difference between concentric and eccentric isotonic muscle contractions?
Concentric: muscle actively shortening, force overcomes resistances
Eccentric: muscle actively lengthening, force does not overcome resistance but provides control
What are the muscle-specific considerations in muscle performance assessment?
- Muscle specific: some muscles are stronger than the other
- Joint angle specific: force varies with ROM (isometric, isokinetic)
- Velocity dependent (less force at higher velocities)
What are the general considerations for muscle performance assessment? (6)
- Warm up improves performance
- Standardise warm up for repeat test
- Need to determine number of trials and rest intervals
- Often a minimum of 3 min rest between trials if maximal efforts required
- Often allow 3 trials
- Ideally have some idea of athlete’s performance before testing
What is the method and duration of Isometric Strength Testing?
- Maximal effort exerted over 3-4 seconds
- Measured using a cable tensiometer, simple strain gauge dynamometer (e.g., handgrip), or load cell (force change in voltage)
What are the advantages and disadvantages of Isometric Strength Tests?
+ Widely used standard tests, high reliability, high margin of safety
+ Develop more force during an isometric than concentric contraction
- Force measured at one joint angle only (may not represent strengths at other angles)
- Poor correlation with sports performance and training effects
How do isokinetic tests work, and what are their benefits?
- Subject exerts force against lever arm
- Device holds velocity of movement constant
+ Excellent reliability at lower velocities (up to 120°/s)
+ Record of force through full ROM
+ Can compare R & L limb forces, concentric & eccentric movements, agonist & antagonist muscles
What are the characteristics of Isotonic Strength Tests?
- Involves concentric and eccentric components
- Load is constant throughout
- Maximal load often using 1RM
- Recommended for novices: 3RM, 5RM, 10RM to increase safety, but less accuracy.
- Reliability: High with experienced subjects.
- Safety considerations: rack supports, spotters, and proper instruction
How do you estimate 1RM from multiple rep max (RM) tests?
For untrained individuals:
1RM (kg) = 1.554 x 7-10 RM load (kg) - 5.181
For trained individuals:
1RM (kg) = 1.172 x 7-10 RM load (kg) - 7.704
What is the difference between Strength and Power?
Strength is the maximum capacity to generate force
Power is the rate of performing work, meaning how quickly force is generated
How does maximum strength relate to power?
Maximum strength influences power, as they are related but not the same capacities
What is the formula for power?
Power = (force x distance) ÷ time
What is the primary focus of Power Testing?
- Short-duration explosive-effort tests
- It assesses the ability to generate high power over a short time period, which also indicates the performance of anaerobic energy systems
What are some common performance tests for power?
- Vertical jump
- Standing long jump
- Maragaria-Kalamen stair run
- Peak power output on 10s cycle test
What is a Strength-Endurance Test and what does it measure
- Ability to maintain force without fatigue
- It tests muscle endurance through sustained isometric force (eg. wall sit) or repetitions of muscle actions
What are some examples of Strength Endurance Tests?
Repetitions of muscle action: Curl-ups, push-ups, pull-ups, stand-ups
Fatigue profiling: Decrease in force during isokinetic fatigue tests or a decrease in power over 10s and 30s cycle tests.
Absolute strength endurance: Number of repetitions with a set load (e.g., 50kg or body weight).
Relative strength endurance: Number of repetitions at a set % of an individual’s 1RM
What factors affect the reliability of strength endurance tests?
- Usually lower than strength tests
- Improved by ensuring correct form on every repetition
- Testing isometric endurance may be more reliable
- Often poor with novice
What is flexibility?
Refers to the range of motion (ROM) around a joint or group of joints
What anatomical factors affect flexibility?
- Joint structure
- Length and distensibility of muscles, tendons, and ligaments
- Soft tissue impediments
What other factors affect flexibility?
- Physical activity level
- Environmental conditions (warming increases distensibility of tissues)
- Ability to relax muscles
- Presence of muscle soreness (adds stiffness)
What are some common flexibility assessments?
- Visual ratings: often used in field assessments
- Measured ROM (goniometres, inclinometres, sit and reach, shoulder rotation, ankle flexion-extension)
How is balance clinically assessed?
Often assessed as part of an evaluation of dizziness/vestibular disorders
What are some common balance tests?
- Single limb stance
- Stork stand
- Star excursion balance test
- Berg Balance Test
- Wobble board tests
