My Fitness Assessment

1. I am generally low to moderately active. In most everyday activities I need to be sitting down in
front of a computer or driving from point a to point b. I spend most of my time taking care of my
children, home, and schoolwork. I tend to put my health and needs at the bottom of my list every
day and then never get to it. I am not a very consistent person. I tend to start out strong and then
fall away from my scheduled activities for weeks at a time. My body composition is slowly
changing for the worse. Each year since I had my girls in 2003 and 2005 I am gaining about ten
pounds each year.
Rebecca Esposito
Age: 41 Sex: F Activity level: low to moderate BF%: 35% - 5’2” - 185 lbs.
ParQ test: Restrictions are shoulders/ rotator cuffs. No heavy lifting or weight bearing exercises
for shoulders. Keep weight from 10-15 pounds. Be careful of balance due to vertigo. Watch for
getting up too quickly when doing exercises where you lay down.
Health status and general medical history: General health is fair to good. Although overweight
there are no signs of diabetes or high blood pressure at this point.
Medications: Low dose Effexor for migraines assoc. with vertigo.
Risk factors and precautions: There are slight risk factors of balance. Client needs to take
caution on aerobic equipment and when lifting weights should have a spotter. Client needs to be
careful of straining rotator cuffs.
Assessment results on testing CRF, endurance, flexibility, and strength:

2. CRF: Client has a maximum heart rate of 180. She needs to keep her low level at 135 and high
level at 153. Although considered obese, Becki can exercise at 80% of her MHR for up to 30
minutes with lower level intervals of MHR.
Endurance: Becki can keep her endurance level up with medium impact aerobics or light jogging
for up to one hour without any medical issues occurring.
Flexibility: Becki has minimal flexibility when using the flexibility tests. She is inches away
from her fingertips touching around her back and cannot touch her toes by several inches as well.
Strength: In this area Becki is quite strong. Using Hammer Smith machines and free weights she
is able to lift quite heavy for 8-10 reps at increments of three sets.
Health and lifestyle behaviors: Becki’s health is fair to good. There are no medical issues to
prevent her from exercising on a regular basis. She has a habit of putting off exercise until the
end of her day rather than starting the day off with exercise. Consistency is an issue. Becki tends
to favor sitting down activities like crocheting, knitting, reading, or watching movies. Getting out
and being active takes some effort.
Body Composition: BF% is 35% which is quite high and cause for concern. On the Index for
BMI it states that this percentage lies in the middle of the obesity chart. This is cause for concern
but can be brought down quite easily in increments over a period of months.
Nutrition: Becki’s nutrition is quite all over the place. One day she eats healthy whole foods and
eats enough calories in a day. Other days she goes without eating for too long of periods of time

3. and ends up eating the wrong foods. Her calorie intake is pretty consistent at 1800 calories give
or take a couple of hundred but the quality of the calories is what makes the difference here.
Readiness for change: Becki shows a lot of interest in changing her overall health and daily
habits. She realizes that this will take time and that it will be good for her in the long run.
Motivational strategies and techniques: Becki has her health as her main motivation and her
children’s health as her secondary motivation. She wants to change her habits to better be an
example to her two young girls of ages 7 and 6.
Recommendations
My recommendations are that Becki start a program through her YMCA where she and her
family already have a membership. They have trainers available and free classes that she can
utilize most days of the week. The YMCA also offers family fun things to do so that she can
show her children how to stay healthy and make exercise part of everyday life.
When lifting weights she needs to be careful not to lift too heavy when doing any shoulder work.
Keeping the weight at 10-15 lb increments and doing the lighter weights with 10-15 reps will
ensure better safety. When using any equipment she needs to take care in paying attention to her
footing and balance. Listening to music would be fine but she should stay away from watching
t.v. screens while on cardio equipment unless holding on to machines at all times.
When doing cardio Becki can do intervals of high/low intensity for up to 40 minutes. Starting a
Yoga class or doing yoga videos at home would be highly beneficial to get some flexibility back.

4. Flexibility is important especially when planning on weight lifting regularly. Make sure to
stretch after workouts this is important for flexibility also.
Eating a well balanced meal three times a day with a couple of healthy snacks in between can
help curb any binge eating or cravings for the wrong foods. Try eating six small meals each day
at about 200-300 calories each. Make sure to eat them at the same time each day as often as
possible and don’t eat 3-4 hours before bedtime. Drink plenty of water. Overall nutrition is good
except on the binge days. Becki gets enough protein, vegetables, and complex carbohydrates.
She stays away from processed foods and sugary foods.
If Becki can be consistent with diet and exercise with weights 3-4 times each week and do cardio
5 times each week, she can easily lose one pound a week which will be a safe and more
permanent way of getting healthy.

5. References
Thygerson and Larson, Fit to be Well.
Thygerson and Larson, Fit to be Well lab manual.