Whether you feel fit and healthy or know you need to kick-start your exercise routine, fitness testing is a great way to measure your current fitness level and set realistic goals. Your fitness level is a good predictor of both your current and future health. Fitness testing, also referred to as a fitness assessment or a fitness evaluation, is an important part of a comprehensive health assessment.
In the corporate world, employee fitness and health is of the utmost importance, making fitness testing a valuable tool for today's employers. Good employee health not only improves the employee's life, it increases productivity and reduces absenteeism and medical-related costs for employers.
How Fitness Testing By Kinesiologists Works
A fitness test measures your strength, endurance and agility, and allows healthcare professionals to identify your physical strengths, weaknesses and help you develop a training program that's right for you.
“A fitness test as part of a comprehensive health assessment is a test done by a kinesiologist, where the kinesiologist evaluates muscular strength, flexibility, endurance, and tries to calculate a VO2 max, which is an exercise term to evaluate aerobic fitness,” says Dr. Peter House, a physician and HealthChoicesFirst.com partner. “Kinesiologists also evaluate body density as best they can, by measuring skin folds by caliper.”
The kinesiologist measures skin folds by caliper to calculate how much subcutaneous fat a person has, then uses an equation to predict body density and body fat percentage. There are a number of fitness tests a kinesiologist can use to identify your fitness level, monitor any health conditions and risks, and help you create an exercise plan.
VO2 max Tests
A VO2 max test looks at the maximum amount of oxygen that a person can utilize during exercise. A client uses an ergometer such as a cycle or treadmill, which measures oxygen uptake and carbon dioxide in expired air. The VO2 max test measures how well the heart and lungs send oxygen to the muscles during exercise, and your heartbeat, blood pressure and oxygen levels will be closely monitored while you exercise.
Is it time for you to see a kinesiologist for fitness testing?
“You should do a fitness test as part of your comprehensive health assessment when you're a male over 40, or a female over 45 to 50, or at any time that you wish to evaluate what your cardiovascular and strength fitness is,” says Dr. House.