Health and Fitness Report
U14A1-P3/M2/M3/D1/D2
Mr Horton’s Health and Fitness Report
Introduction
Over the past through months I have been working with you as a personal trainer and together we’ve completed health and fitness tests. These results have allowed for us to understand where you are currently and how you can improve. The health tests were on the 6th of November. The health tests included in the session were lung capacity, BMI, blood pressure, heart rate.
The fitness tests were on 21st of January; the fitness tests included were for muscular endurance, muscular strength, cardiovascular endurance, power, flexibility and speed. On average Mr. Horton scored well above average
The PAR-Q that the client filled out showed me that there was nothing wrong with doing the tests and that he was in fine condition. I think the PAR-Q was very well written and asked all the right questions. It showed me he was in perfect condition to go ahead and do the fitness tests.
PAR-Q
A Physical Active Readiness Questionarre, or PAR-Q, is used to determine not only a participants fitness levels before testing, but also making sure they are healthy enough to even complete the tests. This is done as a quick question and answer session before the tests take place and is done due to how easy it is to carry out and how good it is at getting results.
Analysis
Although my client has an unusually optimum lifestyle there are a few general tips that can be taken into consideration when trying to improve. For example diet and health
In the future he should look towards working on his stress levels, we saw in the health tests that he had a high blood pressure, this could in part be due to his high stress levels then also a minor amount due to the fact he drinks caffeinated products on a daily basis, this could definitely be improved along with the rest of his diet.
Due to the high amount of training and sport you do my client should every now and then take a break and maybe do another more relaxing thing like yoga. He should do this because doing too much of the same thing can start to hurt the joints in the long run. Also doing other types of sport other than just running, like swimming and rowing etc.
There are plenty of ways my client could do the following. There are a variety of different diets and health tips he can take, although he already uses a Garmin watch and has a smartphone with various apps already on it.
This will be explained in further detail later on in the report.
Results
Results from the fitness testing:
Results from the health testing:
BMI: 23.3
Height: 180cm
Weight: 75.5 Kg
Lung capacity: 5200 cc
Blood pressure: 143/87
Heart rate: 65 bpm
Lifestyle and looking at the future
Lifestyle improvements come in a variety of different ways. Different lifestyle improvements include smoking, alcohol, diet, stress, sleep. Improving in each of these types of lifestyle takes time and dedication. I will be mentioning and comparing Mr Horton's results throughout pointing out where his results could have improved or if he could improve on any of these attributes of lifestyle.
Smoking
Starting off with smoking. Smoking is know to cause many harmful diseases, this includes heart disease, cancer is almost every organ of your body and various other cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Smoking takes over 480,000 of lives per year in the USA alone according to http://www.cdc.gov, and make you smell bad. It is good that my client does not smoke and therefore does not have to worry about any of the diseases or negative factors from smoking.
Smoking can also decrease your lung capacity which is not good for someone that wants to compete and race in endurance events. It can also clog your airway or burn the cilia in your trachea which will make breathing more difficult. It can also decrease blood flow due to creation of plaques in your blood vessels. This can greatly increase the chance of a heart attack as your blood flow is not adequate to fuel your body. All of these factors hugely decrease sports performance and should be avoided.
If he wants to improve even further, second hand smoke is almost as bad as first hand smoke and if my client has regular contact with heavy smokers it could have the same effect. To improve on this just try and avoid contact with people while they smoke, or try convincing them to quit. If anymore information is needed please visit our site, if you cannot find what you are looking for there, come and ask one of our staff members.
Diet
Diet is another big part of having a healthy lifestyle. From the answers he gave me from my PAR-Q and just general talking throughout the testing, it seems like there should not be anything to worry about with what he is currently eating and drinking. There are, however, some general tips that apply to everyone. Avoiding eating a meal that lacks vegetables and overdoses on fat, for example a meal from McDonalds is unhealthy and should be eaten in utmost moderation, if at all.
You should look towards aiming for keeping up with your 5 a day and making sure all the meals you have are balanced well with carbohydrates, proteins, fats and others. This means you will have sufficient energy stores and be able to exercise to burn it off. Some motivation for doing this could be the body image you get at the end of it, and much happier and healthier you will feel. A good diet should fit with the eatwell plate which is a good guide to what your nutritional requirements are and how to meet them. It will also mean that you have sufficient energy throughout the day to feel energetic and motivated. This in turn should decrease stress and make it easier to sleep.
A good diet should include the following:
As you weigh around 69-75 kg you should maintain around 2700 calories, if you are doing exercise then you should eat around 3000 calories a day. This will allow for you to stay healthy and gain muscle when you do exercise. You should be eating white meats like fish and chicken as these are easier to digest and have high protein content.
Not only this but having healthy snacks like nuts, fruit and vegetable is healthy and will make you feel a lot better. They provide fibre which aid digestion, they also contain a variety of essential vitamins and minerals that should be included in your diet. Nuts provide essential fats as well, this provides your body with an energy source.
Finally make sure to always drink enough water. You should be drinking around 2 litres of water a day, around 8 cups. Water helps provide your muscles with energy, regulates body temperature and flushes out waste products in the body. It is essential to stay hydrated before, during and after physical activity.
Sleep
The third lifestyle improvement I will recommend is sleep. Getting enough sleep is vital to staying healthy. As my client mentioned previously during the tests, he is quite stressed out and has very little time to sleep. This is something I always make sure to ask, whether it is in the PAR-Q or not. High blood pressure can be found from not getting enough sleep, which is something that my client has shown signs of. The recommended amount of sleep for an adult is 6-8 hours a night. A good way to make sure you are having good sleep you can download a sleep tracking app. This will allow for you to track your sleep to see how long you are in deep sleep and whether or not it is enough every night. If the app shows that you have a bad sleep pattern, even after the changes you have made in your life, then go to see a doctor or specialist to see what you can do.
Caffeine can be something that affects your sleep patterns, and again, my client has expressed that he drinks coffee everyday, this can not only increase your blood pressure, but also make it difficult to sleep. From a personal training perspective, improving his sleep and coffee intake is the main priority for improvement. There are a variety of ways of doing this, coffee can and should be dropped, ways to do this include cutting the intake slowly and replacing coffee with another, healthier drink like water or tea. The result of this should be that you are less reliant on coffee, and you feel less stressed and tired. Having a normal sleep routine just means falling asleep at the right time. Make sure to plan and organise all your work effectively so you are able to reach a minimum of 6 hours of sleep every night. There are also positive benefits which are that you should work more effectively when you are awake as you should be more concentrated.
Stress
Stress is a bad thing because it affects your whole lifestyle negatively. It will decrease your sleep, it can make you less productive and even decrease your happiness. This has a huge negative influence on your lifestyle and it should be first priority to reduce your stress levels. Below I will highlight a few ways of doing this.
Stress is another lifestyle improvement that relates to my client very well. During the tests where he expressed how stressed he was from work and home I know, a long with sleep, this should be the main thing he focuses on to improve. Usually when you are stressed you do not get enough sleep, you do not eat properly and you are a lot more moody than you usually would be. Not only that but you can become demotivated to do any exercise, when actually, doing exercise can reduce stress and relieve tension. Getting enough sleep can also make you feel less stressed out. More information about this can be found if you head on over to our site.
A good way to reduce stress is to go out for a relaxing run, this produces endorphens which decreases stress, but also doing exercise will make you feel better about yourself and make you happier in that way as well. After this or whenever you feel stressed taking a warm bath can also help. It will relax your muscles and stop them from tensing up, this will also decrease stress and almost force you into a relaxed state. You also feel a lot better after a bath as it feels like a full body cleanse.
There are various activities you can do at work or in other stressful environments that can make you feel better. Simple things like closing your eyes and breathing slowly, counting to ten in your head and even stretching a bit will all make you feel more relaxed, calm your thoughts and your body a long with it. It also helps to keep you focused and you should notice that you work better.
Alcohol
Finally, alcohol, is the drug that everyone does. While my client said that he drinks under the average amount for an adult which is around 21 drinks in 1 week, it does effect a lot of other people. While some alcohol can be good or you, for example, a glass of red wine once or twice a week is actually good for the heart and something that I would recommend. However, making sure to not drink too much can never go wrong. Alcohol can cause liver disease, heart failure, stroke and many others horrible things. I trust that my client has answered the PAR-Q accurately and has not lied about anything, if he has then he should have nothing to worry about in this section either.
At all costs make sure to avoid drinking spirits in the future, it has only bad affects. The most prominent being that it can severely dehydrate your body which is not good, it also affects your bodies sleep pattern and energy production. This is not something he would want to deal with if he already has to deal with stress. Around 2.5 million people per year die of alcohol consumption, so ensure to stay under the limit which was detailed on the PAR-Q.
Fitness and looking at the future
To start off with, looking towards the future is always the best bet when looking towards improving your lifestyle, as nothing will improve if you do not put any effort in. There are a couple of simple ways you can start to improve on your fitness by just doing little daily things, or making certain purchases.
There is a certain purchase you can make in the form of a sports watch. These are handy devices that allow for you to map, distance and save your run, cycle or walk. Not only that but tell you how many steps you took, how many calories you burned and what your heart rate was throughout different parts of the session. This is a great pickup for someone that wants to start taking sport seriously and really start to push the limits. This is why it is such a great pick-up for my client as he is going to want to document and compare his results to make sure he is staying at the standard he wants to maintain.
To start off with there is the 100 press-up challenge. This is a great app on any smart phone that guides you through working up to being able to do 100 press-ups. Another thing like this is random abs, a website where you get emailed a work out and are expected to complete it in your own time. These kinds of things not only test your commitment but also pushes your boundaries and makes you work hard.
Finally there are many events around that you can take part in whoever they are up. one example of this is Jantastic. A running event in January that after a quick google search and sign up will motivate you to go out, even with your friends, and get fit together, although in terms of my client they should be focusing more on the competitive scene as it is more challenging and will help improve them even further and better even than where he is at the moment.
Conclusion
Overall my client is very healthy in every way scoring above average in almost all the tests. He has no clear problems with his health; he has an engaging and active job and does a lot of training because he is actively involved in races like triathlons and others. The problems that he is facing at the moment and need to overcome are the consumption of coffee, the lack of sleep and dealing with stress. The problems he could have in the future are over working and getting joint or muscle problems. This is due to the family history of bone problems as they age and not anything to do with the PAR-Q and not a result or finding from any of the tests.