Fitness Assessment Tools

Fitness assessment is vital for both the fitness professional and the client before and during the training program. Some methods measure how healthy your heart is, while others estimate the change in body fat-to- muscle ratio during your training over a period of months. This tracks the client's progression and indicates whether the exercise program works.

  1. Skin Calipers

    • Many fitness professionals use a skin caliper to estimate how much body fat you have vs. how much fat-free mass you have. Although this method is more accurate than using a weight scale, the accuracy depends on the professional's skill and experience, his calculation method, and the client's skin mass, says Michael Clark, CEO of the National Academy of Sports Medicine. This method is more ideal for those with leaner bodies than those who are overweight or obese.

    Measuring Tape

    • The measuring tape is used to measure the ratio of the circumference of your waist to that of your hip. As a rule of thumb, the waistline should be smaller than the hipline so that your body is more pear-shaped than apple-shaped. This is a better indication of your risk of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases than using the body mass index, or BMI, according to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. For men and women, the ratio of waist to hip should be below 1.00.

    Blood Pressure Gauge

    • People with high blood pressure may not be able to perform higher-intensity exercises, which can cause dizziness, loss of balance and even unconsciousness or death. Fitness professionals must perform a blood pressure test for all clients, even if they appear fit and healthy. The American Council of Exercise suggests that you use either an automatic blood pressure gauge or a sphygmomanometer, with which you manually inflate the cuff until you can no longer feel a pulse in your wrist. The latter requires you to use a stethoscope to listen to the pulse.

    Functional Movement Screen

    • The Functional Movement Screen determines your risk of injury by having you perform seven fundamental movement patterns essential to normal human movement. It consists of the deep squat, hurdle step, in-line lunge, shoulder reach, one-rep push-up, single leg raise, and rotary stability. Each test is given a ranking system in which a "three" indicates that you move well in that pattern and a "one" indicates that you did not pass the basic checkpoints for that pattern. This provides the fitness professional a baseline to design an exercise program that strengthens your weakest movement pattern before progressing to more advanced training levels, and reduces the risk of injury, says physical therapist Gray Cook, co-founder of Functional Movement Systems and author of "Movement."