E47 - Are you fit enough?

In part 2 of my discussion on aerobic fitness, we look at basic, safe tests given to personal training clients. Treadmills, stationary bikes, rowers or swimming pools are good facilities to use for testing and subsequent training, in order for clients to improve their cardiovascular health. Generally we aim for 75% of a client's maximum heart rate during training, allowing for short term increase up to 90% or more, depending the type of exercise prescribed and the client's physiological state during the session. Ordinarily a client is advised to participate in resistance based exercise / strength training early into his or her new fitness regime, however it's equally important to establish a baseline of aerobic fitness first, to assist in the uptake of oxygen delivery during weight training. A Cooper test is an ideal early stage aerobic fitness evaluation, of which can be completed over 12 minutes in a swimming pool or outdoors walking or running. The majority of new clients will at best make it onto the lower tier of the chart score. With this information at hand, we can then prescribe appropriate cardiovascular programs. It must be clarified that continuous cardiovascular exercise /aerobic training is initially good for body weight or body fat reduction, however eventually a client will need to switch to strength training, as his or her body will quickly adapt to cardio based workouts and reduce valuable muscle mass, in order to become more efficient over long distance runs, swims, cycles etc. Please remember to subscribe to the channel and feel free to comment.