Health and Fitness Report
Mr Wickins
Introduction
PAR-Q Results
PAR-Q is a questionnaire that tells us a little more about your lifestyle so that it can help us set a program that is suitable for you specifically.
According to your PAR-Q
You are an individual who do not smoke, do not drink, do not have stress, do not have any chronic diseases and have no problem in taking part in any physical activity. You run for 5-6 km 2-3 times a week and you feel that you are fit but you could improve. You eat cereal for breakfast, sandwich and yogurt for lunch and some chicken and carbs for dinner. You also sleep 8-9 hours a day.
Smoking
This shows that you are a healthy individual, first you do not smoke and for people who do exercise smoking will not contribute to your success, according to research, smoking decreases lung capacity and increases the chance of having lung cancer, especially when you are a long distance runner,this could be an disadvantage because during aerobic training it requires you to have enough oxygen in order to produce energy. It also decrease the area of your airway which means it increases the difficulty in breathing. Not only it affects your breathing rate and your lungs, smoking also affects your blood vessels as when you smoke it creates plaques in your blood vessels which will restrict the blood vessels to flow around the body. When this happens, it will greatly increase the chance of having heart attack. Because of the restriction in your blood vessels, smoking will increase your blood pressure and will slow down the oxygen from going into your muscles and slows down the blood from going into your organs. All of the disadvantages above can greatly affect your performance in sports as it relates to decrease the oxygen that you can take in which means less energy is produced. So it is a very good thing that you do not smoke because all of the disadvantages list above will not happen to you because you do not smoke.
Drinking
Secondly you do not drink, this is also good because drinking could put burden on your liver which will cause scar tissue, this is because when the liver tries to break down alcohol, it will damage itself and when the liver tries to repair itself, it builds a scar tissue around damaged areas, which can cause liver cancer.
Drinking can also cause mental disorder as drinking too much destroys your central nervous system which will affect you ability to concentrate, and the ability to think
Drinking will also make platelets to clump together into blood clots which can lead to heart attack and stroke. Drinking also weakens the heart muscles and eventually the heart will fail.
Drinking also decrease the ability of your immune system causing infection to happen easier.
In addition, drinking too much will cause your body to rely on alcohol which means you get addicted, then all of the problems that I list above will happen which will be very concerning.
So it is very good that you do not drink. This means that the problems that I list above would not happen to you because you do not drink.
Chronic disease
Thirdly, you do not have any chronic disease, chronic diseases are diseases that are long term, for example diabetes and heart problems, it can also be other long term organ problems and not smoking and not drinking can be one of the reason why you do not have a chronic disease, another reason can be your diet, although it can be improved, right now you are still eating very healthily. This is also one of the reason why till this day you do not have any chronic disease.
Sleep/ Stress
You also have enough sleep which is eight hours and this is the one of the reason why you have a low stress level. Which is good because sleep can provide mental and physical protection and keep you concentrating through the day.
Sleep can also reduce the chance of having heart problems, for example stroke and heart attack. Sleep is also one way to prevent cancer, when you sleep your body produces a hormone called melatonin which is a hormone that reduce the growth of tumors which reduces the chance of having cancer.
Getting enough sleep is important to an athlete because the time when your body repairs, so if you do not sleep the muscle that has been broken down would not be repaired and this will hinder your future performance.
As you are in the high normal range in your BMI test, it is important that you get enough sleep, because lack of sleep slows down your metabolism which means your body burns less calories. This will be a great disadvantage when you are trying to lose weight.
Can do physical activity
At last, you do not have any problems that can stop you from attending a physical activity, which again tells us that you are a healthy individual especially when you do physical activities frequently and I am sure that you know about your body well enough. This is also good because you can now continue to be active and exercise so that you can have a healthy active lifestyle.
Above are your strengths I see in your PAR-Q
Diet
The only thing I would say is to improve your diet, it is a very healthy diet, there is no excess amount of sugar and salt but I can see there is much more food and nutrients you can add in to your diet to improve performance and make you healthier which i will talk about in the Diet Recommendation section.
Health Screening Test Results
Body Mass Index
Your body mass index is 24kgm2, which is a high average according to the normative data; the normal range is from 18.5 – 24.99 kgm2. This means that you are just in a good weight for your height. Body Mass Index has eight different categories, severe thinness, and moderate thinness, mid thinness, normal, pre obese, obese class 1, obese class 2 and obese class 3 and to be good in this test you have to try your best to stay in the normal range because either underweight and overweight is not good for you especially when you are running a long distance. When you are heavier, your BMI increases so; in the future we will bring your weight down by changing your lifestyle to improve your Body Mass Index score.
Lung Capacity
Lung capacity test is a test to see your maximum output of air in one go, so basically you breathe out as hard as you can in one go for three times and having a rest in between. For the lung capacity test, your result is 4900cc, which is an excellent for your age and this means that your lung is functioning very well. The excellent score for your age is 2800cc and your lung capacity is way above the excellent score, this may be because you do a lot of long distance run and your intercostal muscles are bigger and stronger, also your lungs are use to taking in oxygen so it can take it more oxygen. So I would suggest keeping your lifestyle the way it is right now.
Heart rate/ Blood pressure
Your resting heart rate is 42; the average is 72-76 and which means that your heart is very strong because of the long distance running you did, your heart is stronger. For blood pressure your result is 117 for systolic and 70 for diastolic, the average is 120 for systolic and 80 for diastolic. Although it is a bit lower than average but it is still an ideal result for blood pressure; it means that you have a healthy artery. I would also suggest some lifestyle improvements below to stabilize your blood pressure and to possibly improve your resting heart rate as well.
Looking at your results you have in the health-screening test, you are a very healthy individual; we can decrease your weight by doing continuous training at 60%- 80% of your heart rate, which is your fat burning zone so that your body mass index is in a medium average instead of high average. We can also decrease your heart rate by doing more cardiovascular exercise such as continuous training (running for 30 minutes – 1 hour keeping your heart rate at 60%-80%) this can cause cardiac hypertrophy which makes your cardiac muscle bigger and contract stronger which means the work load of your heard decreases; this can also increase your lung capacity because your body is use to take in more oxygen. After aerobic exercise, your intercostal muscles also gets bigger and stronger so that you can breathe more efficiently. In order to keep track of your heart rate, I recommend you to buy a Heart Rate Monitor to keep track of your heart rate when you are running so you can make sure that you are running in the fat burning zone.
Below is an example of a heart rate monitor; other brands or model will also work the same.
Fitness Test Result
Vertical jump
For the fitness test we did 7 test, vertical jump test, 10 rep max test, 30 meters sprint test, sit and reach test, push up test, sit up test and 12 minute cooper run.
The first test we did is the vertical jump test, your result is 34.5cm which is below average, this is mainly because your training is focusing on long distance runs and cycling these are not power related exercise so it is reasonable that you have a below average score.
10 rep max
Second test is the 10 rep max test, we converted your result into a 1-rep max using a one rep max calculator and your result is 80 kg, this score is below average but this test is for weight lifters and for people that do sports which require a lot of muscular strength and your score is reasonable because you do long distance run which are not sport that requires a lot of muscular strength on the upper body.
30m sprint
The third test we did is the 30m sprint, your result is 4.81, which is poor but this is also because running fast requires power and you do long distance runs, not sprints and this result is also very reasonable because your body consist more type 1 muscles which are slow twitch muscles than type 2b muscles which are very fast twitch muscles.
Sit and reach
Forth test we did is the sit and reach test, your result is 3 cm which is poor, this means that you have a very tight hamstring and lower back muscle and this could potentially cause an injury later on because running and cycling uses a lot of hamstring muscle and if it is too tight you can easily tore them.
Push up/ Sit up test
The fifth test we did is the push up test; your result is 53, which is excellent that means your muscular endurance of your upper body is very good, it means that your pectoral, triceps and your deltoid lactic acid tolerance is very good. Your sixth test is sit up test, your result is 42 which is good but there is room for improvement, because your abdominal muscles are very important because it links the upper body to the lower body which is a very crucial part to sporting success because it is the stabilizer of the body.
12 minute cooper run
Your last test you did is the 12-minute cooper run, your result is 3.3 km, which is excellent, this is mainly because you do triathlon and long distance run and this proves that your aerobic endurance is excellent and your heart is functioning very efficiently, you have a lot of mitochondria in your muscles and your oxygen diffusion rate is very high.
PAR-Q Recommendation
According to the PAR-Q you do not smoke, drink and have a lot of stress. This means you are very healthy.
Smoking
I will recommend to continue with this kind of lifestyle, not only do not smoke, sometimes you should also walk away from people who smoke, because second hand smoke will also affect your lungs and decrease your lung capacity which is not good for long distance runners. Also there is research showing that 4 million people die each year because of smoking and people who are always around people who smoke have an higher chance to have lung cancer, so it is very beneficial for you to stay away from people who smokes a lot. Also smoking and taking in second hand smoke will decrease your stamina which will not be good for long distance running.
Stress
Although you said you are not stressed but you are in a high-pressure role, you might not be stress at that moment but you will be stress sometimes, so I recommend that when you are stressed, go out for a half hour or an hour run so that your body produces endorphin, which lowers stress level.
After a day of hard work, take a warm bath so that you can relax your muscles, this way you do not have to be so tense up all the time, which also reduces stress.
When you are at work and when you are stressed out you can also try to close your eyes and take a deep breathe and exhale slowly, focus on your breathing rate, this way it puts your mind off work for a while, this also reduces stress.
When you have a break, you can also listen to some music, so that your mind stops focusing on thinking about work and enjoys the music.
Above are varies of recommendation you can use to reduce stress.
Drinking
Drinking is not as a big problem but if you want to drink, I will recommend you to drink a glass of red wine, once or twice a week because red wine has been proven to help strengthen your heart and also release stress as its slows down your body so you do not have to be so tense up and research also shows that drinking a little bit of wine before you sleep will improve sleep quality as you are relaxed.
You should keep on avoiding in drinking spirits and a lot of beer because alcohol can interferes with your body making energy, dehydrates your body, it can affect sleep patterns as well. According to research 2.5 million people die because of drinking too much alcohol (3-4 units for men, 2-3 units for women). So keep this lifestyle you are having right now and minimize the alcohol intake so you can prevent the things that I list in the PAR-Q Result section.
Sleep
Sleep is also very important so keep sleeping eight hours a day to recover your body mentally and physically. It is very important to sleep, first it recovers your body mentally and physically, secondly it keeps your brain functioning efficiently through out the day, people who do not have enough sleep will have lack of concentration and slow reaction causing accidents like twisting an ankle while sport activity or even car crash. So make sure you have enough quality sleep. I understand that you will have some days where you do not get enough sleep, so make sure you pay off the sleep debt, sleep debt is how much sleep you are missing, so for example if you only sleep for 6 hours when you are suppose to sleep for 8 hours, your sleep debt is 2 hours, you have to pay the debt by taking power naps or sleeping more the next night. You can download an app called the “Sleep Cycle” in your smartphone to record the quality of sleep you are having. This helps you to see whether you are having a good quality of sleep or not.
Health Screening Test Recommendation
Diet Recommendation
You are a healthy person but I also have some recommendations to help you get even healthier.
Water
Drink at least 2 liters of water a day, if you are not doing so, start doing that because water can help energize your muscles, control calories and also balance body fluids.I also help dissolve the vitamins which are water soluble
Almonds
I would recommend some food that you can add into your current diet, you said that you have high cholesterol level, having a handful of almonds 3-5 times a week can lower the circuit cholesterol level and it has also been scientifically proven that it can decrease the risk of heart disease.
Protein
Eggs, beans, chicken is also three good protein source for runners since the marathon is coming up and your training session will get more and more intense, you should consume more protein so that it can repair the worked up muscles. According to information runners actually need 50-75% more protein that non- runners because of the intense work out that runners do.
Specific Recommendations (Half Marathon):
According to what you told me in the last session you are doing a half marathon sooner or later and you are currently training 3 times a week running 4-5 km each time, I recommend you to increase the intensity of your running session, maybe from running 5km each training session up to 7km. This way you can improve your cardiovascular fitness and muscular endurance. But remember make sure you keep your heart rate in between 60%-80% because anything above that is training your anaerobic system not aerobic. As I said above I recommend you to buy a heart rate monitor. By doing aerobic exercise it can also increase the amount of mitochondria in your muscles, which speeds up the aerobic reaction, which means you, get more energy quicker.
Fitness Test Recommendation
According to what you told me in the last session you are a football player and a triathlon runner, then training should be focusing on muscular endurance and aerobic endurance but because you are also interested into joining cross fit competitions we have some recommendation for you for every components of fitness.
Power
For power, I recommend plyometric training, plyometric training is explosive exercise, mainly jumping with long recovery time, and a lot of NBA basketball player will use this method to improve their vertical jump. For example 10 full effort jumps and rest for 3 minutes, this is very effective because every time you jump you are able to maximize your jump as you gained full recovery.
Muscular strength
For muscular strength, lifting heavy weights which you can only lift for 6-10 reps and rest for 1 minutes can increase muscular strength. Do not lift more than 10 reps as you will start to increase your muscular endurance instead of muscular strength. In addition, lifting heavy weights can cause macro tears in your muscles and when it repairs with contractile proteins, your muscles gets bigger and can contract stronger.
Speed
For speed, interval training will be the best choice, these are intense work outs providing rest. To train speed, you will need a long recovery time for example 50 meters sprint providing 2-minute rest, be reminded, when you are training speed, you are using your PCR system which is an explosive energy system it lasts only for 10 seconds and it requires 3 minutes to gain full recovery.
Flexibility
For flexibility, I recommend you to stretch more in free time for example doing some static stretches twice a day, I will attach a YouTube video below to show you those exercise remember to hold the stretching position for 20 second to make sure the muscle is stretched properly. This will potentially reduce the chances of any muscle injuries. According to a Physiotherapist named Panda Li, she stated that tight muscle will move a joint and can potentially change the way that you normally stand which then will affect your spine. This is why stretching is that important.
Muscular endurance
For improving your muscular endurance, you can do 50 push ups and do it for 5 sets and I will also recommend you to do an 8 minutes abdominal work out. I will also attach a video with the 8 minutes abdominal workout. For these exercises try to minimize your recovery time, because resting to long would affect your result as the definition of muscular endurance is to use the same muscle multiple times without getting tired.
Aerobic endurance
For aerobic endurance, I recommend you to do continuous training, for example run for 1 hour 3 times a week or cycle for 3-4 hours, twice a week, this way you will have a stronger heart, have capilarisation, increase mictochrondira which is the aerobic enzymes and the oxygen diffusion rate increases that means you can create energy more efficiently.
Thank you
See you soon!