This interactive, online study guide is designed to help you learn how
to assess cardiorespiratory fitness for normal adults. It is supplemented by the text Advanced Fitness Assessment and
Exercise Prescription, Fifth Edition, by Vivian H. Heyward. The study guide includes a glossary of key terms (hyperlinked to the lessons).
The online study guide will help you understand how to assess, test and design programs specific to the needs and
abilities of individual clients. In the course, you will assume the role of a newly hired fitness trainer at a
fitness center. Your four-day orientation program will be conducted by Ms. Watson, the head trainer and you will
be supervised by a virtual mentor (Eric). You will work with 6 clients and interact with them as you would in
a real-life situation. Your mentor will lead you through the following situations and exercises:
Day 1: Screening
and Goal Setting--Working with your 6 clients, you learn to identify the general steps of the pre-exercise screening
process and recognize when important information about a client is missing. You should be comfortable assigning
general fitness goal categories to your clients based on a number of specific factors discussed in this orientation
session. The session concludes with a brief quiz on the core concepts.
Day 2: Fitness
Testing--Eric presents some of the principles and guidelines associated with assessing fitness levels. At the end
of the session, you should be able to select an appropriate fitness test for your client, calculate fitness based
on the results of the test, and assign a fitness level. A short quiz will help you review the major principles
Eric has presented.
Day 3: Designing
a Program--Principles-You'll begin designing fitness programs for your individual clients. You will learn how
to monitor intensity and should be able to select the appropriate method for monitoring exercise intensity for
each of your clients. You will be expected to apply the general cardiorespiratory fitness guidelines for mode,
intensity, duration and frequency to each client's exercise program. At the conclusion of the session, a quiz
is presented.
Day 4: Designing
a Program--Application-Based on the guidelines for cardiorespiratory fitness programming and the guidelines for
progression, you will present a beginning program for each of your clients. Your programs will be based on each
client's current health and activity status, the client's fitness level and goal category, and the principles of
assessment and prescription you've discussed with Ms. Watson and Eric during the orientation sessions. At the
end of the session, Ms. Watson will double-check your mastery of the most important elements with a quiz.
Finally, you'll take the online course test, which covers material from the interactive study guide and from the
course text.
System Requirements
This course is designed to work best when your computer and Internet browser are configured to the following technical requirements and setup specifications:
- Internet Explorer 5.5+ (Windows), Netscape Navigator 7.1+, Mozilla 1.7+, or Firefox 1.0+.
- Computer monitor preferences set for 640 X 480 resolution or larger.
- Adobe Flash Player version 5+. To download the free Flash Player, click on the button below.
- Browser pop-up blockers disabled.
Back to the Online Education Center.