Exam Preparation

Knowing which assessments to use on your clients—and when—is an important part of being a fitness professional. After all, assessments can go a long way toward showing your clients the progress they are making—or, if used incorrectly, can be a source of discouragement. In this second of a four-part series, cardiovascular assessments are discussed, along with guidance on how and when to use them.

Postural assessments can provide information that guides exercise programming. As a fitness professional, understanding how to identify and potentially improve postural deviations may help individuals prevent injury, improve balance, and increase strength.

Anatomically, the kinetic chain describes the interrelated groups of body segments, connecting joints, and muscles working together to perform movements and the portion of the spine to which they connect. This idea proposed that movements occurring within each body segment would be capable of “closed-chain” or “open-chain” movement patterns. As an exercise and health professional, it is important to recognize that good program design includes open-chain and closed-chain exercises.

As a trainer, performing proper assessments is essential to program development and evaluation. Muscular strength testing plays a major role in a client’s muscular fitness assessment, making it critical to know the difference between actual 1 RM and predicted 1 RM.

As your exam day approaches, it is sometimes difficult to know what areas you should be focusing on the most. While we do suggest that you relax, instead of cram, the day before your exam, here are some study strategies that we’ve found to be effective in the period leading up to it.