Frequently Asked Questions
Click on the question marks to view the answers online. Or, if you prefer, click here to download this information in Adobe .pdf format. You may also download sample reports in this format.
 Why should
our fitness center administer fitness tests?
Why should
we assess a participant’s current fitness?
Why measure
fitness improvement over time?
Which fitness
tests should we administer?
How often
should we administer fitness tests?
What if we
want to administer a test that the software doesn’t include?
What if we
design our own test and want to assess participants’ scores, but being a new test, there are no
norms established yet to use in determining assessments?
What does the
word "Weight?" mean when it appears beside a test result on the Fitness Profile in the column
marked "Assessment"?
How can we
prevent a participant’s ID number from showing on the screen when
they log in, so other participants can’t see their ID number?
Does it
matter in what order the fitness tests are given?
Do the
fitness tests have to be defined in the software in the same order as the tests are
given?
There are two basic reasons for administering fitness tests:
- Assessing a participant’s current fitness.
- Measuring fitness improvement over time.
-
You can screen participants to determine who should see a doctor and get a medical
clearance before beginning a conditioning program. This is not only of benefit to the participant, but also protects you and your facility from possible future liability.
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It isolates each person’s strength and weaknesses so you can offer better personalized
advice to each participant for improving those areas that need improvement. Once you enter the
results of the fitness tests into the software, the participant’s Fitness Profile Report indicates which fitness components have weaknesses that need to be addressed.
-
Unless you measure each participant’s fitness component scores when they start and
periodically thereafter, you will never know if that participant has improved because of your
program.
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With the Red Canyon Systems software program, you can print the Individual Fitness Test
Comparison Report for each participant. This report shows for each fitness component, the
amount of improvement that has occurred between test dates. You can use this report to validate
that working out in your center has been successful for the participant. The report is sometimes
referred to as a "report card" is an excellent means of motivating the participant to continue
working out.
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In addition to the report that shows individual participants their improvements, the software
can print a Group Comparison Report. It shows how much the entire membership or selected
groups have improved over a period of time. You can use this information to evaluate the success
of your center overall and statistically validate to others - prospective members, board of trustees, department heads - that the center is successful at improving participant fitness.
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At a minimum, you should administer at least one test each for the five basic fitness components:
- Body Composition
- ratio of fat, bone, and lean muscle mass
- Cardiovascular
- efficiency of the heart, circulatory and respiratory systems
- Strength
- amount of weight a muscle can lift
- Endurance
- muscle’s ability to repeat a task
- Flexibility
- body part’s range of motion or ability to stretch
Each fitness component has various tests that can be administered and assessed. The nine
most-common tests are:
Body Composition
-
Weight
-
Body Fat % - via skin fold or electrical impedance machine
Cardiovascular
- Resting Pulse
- Blood Pressure
- Step Test
Strength
- One Repetition Max Lift of an upper body exercise, such as bench
press
- One Repetition Max Lift of a lower body exercise, such as seated leg press
Endurance
- Number of curl-ups or sit-ups that can be performed in one minute
Flexibility
- Sit and reach for hip flexibility
The above 9 fitness tests are easily administered in the field and offer a fairly comprehensive
assessment of a participant’s overall fitness.
Most participants are not only concerned about their fitness, but also their appearance. These
participants will be looking for an assessment of changes in their physical appearance. The
following measurements are recommended as part of the fitness test battery. Reports show the
amount of improvement for the following body parts:
Some participants may want to measure change in biceps, calves, and chest. You can define other
areas for which improvement is to be tracked. We recommend that you administer the 9 fitness
component tests listed above, the three body measurements of waist, hips and thigh, and measure
height. An adult’s height changes little, if any, over time. However, height for younger
participants does change. Height is used in different formulas measuring fitness, such as the Body Mass Index (BMI), a ratio of height to weight.
The recommended basic fitness tests are:
- Weight
- Resting Pulse
- Step Test
- One RM leg press
- Height
- Hips
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- Body fat
- Blood Pressure
- One RM Bench Press
- Sit ups per minute
- Waist
- Thigh
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As often as you want to measure improvement. Normally, you should allot enough time between
tests for improvement to occur. In the case of school fitness centers, testing at the start and end of each school term are natural times to test. This time frame allows for measurable improvement between tests.
Other sites may want to test participants after a specified amount of time - 3 months, 4 months, 6 months. Some sites test participants after the participant as made a specific number of visits to the center since the last test date. In each of these cases, the software and print a list of participants who are due for testing.
If you develop a test of your own, or find an existing test you’d like to use that is not listed in the software’s fitness test master list, contact us. We will add the test to the software’s master test file and send you the new file. You can then add the test to your site test list
and begin recording participants’ results for the test.
If you have norms for the test that you want added, send them to us. We will add the norms to the
software so the fitness profile can provide members with assessments of their scores for the new
test.
Initially, you won’t be able to provide members with assessments of the results of that test, since there are no norms yet to compare the results to. However, after you have administered and
recorded in the software the results of a sufficient number of this new test, you can send an
electronic copy of the test results to us - either via floppy disk or in an e-mail attachment.
We will analyze the results and develop norms tables from them. We will then send you a new file
with norms tables to add to our software program. Our software can then assess all prior and
future results of that test using the norm tables based on your own sites test results.
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This happens when the fitness profile is trying to print out an assessment for a fitness test that requires a member’s body weight and no body weight has been entered in their fitness test. This can occur in the One Rep Max lift tests. For theses tests a participant’s lift weight is divided by their body weight. The software compares the result to the norm table. If you do not use weight as a test for your site or you have not entered the participant’s weight in the fitness test, the assessment cannot be done. In this case, you will need to return to the member’s fitness test, enter a body weight, and reprint the report. The assessment should then appear on the report.
- Click Set Up on the Main Menu
- Click Log In SetUp on the Set Up Form
- On the left column is an item called Log In Character. Key into that item
whatever character you’d like to display instead of the participant’s ID
number when they key their number in.
If you entered a "Z", then for every character participants enter in as their ID, the letter "Z"
appears instead. The computer recognizes the actual keys entered, but displays Z’s.
The most commonly used character in this case is the "#", but you can use any character you
want.
- Click Set Up from the Main Menu
- Click Log In Set Up tab
- Change the Exit ID to whatever set of numbers you want to use to exit Log In. Be sure this
new Exit ID is:
- Something you can remember
- Something that would never be a valid ID number
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Yes. You should be sure that when a participant takes a test that the activity involved in that test does not affect the results of the next test.
As an example, you don’t want to take someone’s blood pressure or resting pulse, right after
they’ve done the step test, sit ups per minute or max lift tests. All of those affect the members
pulse and blood pressure and would result in invalid data.
Likewise, you wouldn’t have a participant do the step test right after doing the max lift leg
press, since the participant’s legs would be fatigued and would affect the results of the step
test.
Do all your static measures first: These can be done in any order. Blood pressure is often done
first. If a person’s blood pressure indicates they are at risk, you can avoid any additional testing for that participant and advise them that they must see a doctor and get
written clearance from their doctor prior to continuing the fitness testing and working out in the center.
- Static Tests
- Resting Pulse
- Height
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- Blood pressure
- Weight
- Girth Measures (Waist, hips thigh)
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Dynamic Tests
There is no specific, ‘best’ order to do these tests in. Try to alternate tests that use the same
major muscle groups. Also try to provide some rest between each test. If you are testing in small
groups at the same test station, most participants should be able to get enough rest between tests while waiting their turn.
- Step Test
- Bench Press - One RM
- Leg Press - One RM
- Sit Ups Per Minute
No. The orders can be different. But for ease of data entry it’s most convenient if the order in
which test items are listed on the form that participants fill in with their responses, is in the same order as the items on the Fitness Tests form in the software.
Since you define your own test items for the software, you can arrange them in the software to
display on the Fitness Tests Form screen to match whatever order you have them on your test
form that participants fill in.
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© Red Canyon Systems, Inc. - August, 2001. All rights reserved.
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