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BIOFITNESS CERTIFIED "WORKOUT PLANNING SPECIALIST"
Creating The Strength Test / Finding The Client's Capacity

BioFitness Institute Curriculum

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STRENGTH TESTING

Page One of Four / Start of Strength Testing

PAGE TWO / CONVERTING MAXIMUMS

Overview School Teaching Method

The BioFitness Institute "Workout Planning Specialist" school, is an open screen classroom, where you learn at your own pace. Unlike other certification schools, BioFitness supplies you with functional workout planning tools on-line. These workout planning tools, allow you to see what you are learning being applied in real-time, in the real world. You are immediately empowered in using the knowledge you are learning. And most importantly you can continue to use that knowledge automatically, free from error.

The Workout Planning Specialist course is presented in a linear manner, beginning at the top of a page and moving to the bottom. The course material starts with Aerobic and Strength Capacity Testing and ends with Aerobic and Strength Workout Planning. There is additional General Knowledge available. You can start your study anywhere but BioFitness recommends that you begin with Capacity Testing.

The BioFitness Teaching Method presents information in a chronological manner. Both in Capacity Testing and Workout Planning the BioFitness Institute teaches the intellectual concepts along with a single example and a step by step analysis of that example. You learn the material by independently following the step by step example at home with your hand calculator. You know your study is correct when your answer matches the BioFitness answer!

You can take the open screen Workout Planning Skills Examination at any time. As soon as you test score is 90 percent you are ready to be your own personal trainer or for the low fee of $299.00 you can receive your BioFitness Institute "Workout Planning Specialist" certificate.

Strength Testing Method

All physical enhancement and growth takes place by increasing the workloads! People who continue to do the same workouts (workloads) over and over again remain physically unchanged while the people who continue to add workload always improve. A Workout Planning Specialist needs to learn how to manage Workload increases. Unfortunately, managing Workload increases is not something taught by most Personal Trainer Certification Schools.

In order to plan the client's workloads correctly the Workout Planning Specialist must first establish the client's weight resistance starting point. Then they project a weight resistance finishing point. This is why the Workout Planning Specialist must conduct a Strength Test prior to preparing a clients Workout Plan. Only Strength Testing can give the Workout Planning Specialist the client's current maximum (baseline.) A clients Strength Test should be mandatory especially when keeping in mind that the Personal Trainer's number one responsibility is to keep the client safe. Any Workout Plan prepared without a prior Strength Test is pure guess work.

Their are several methods of Strength Testing that most Workout Planning Specialists are taught.

There is the Hand Dynomometer which measures pound and kilogram changes in grip strength. Although this test is valid scientifically for indicating strength change in the grip the information has absolutely no real world relevance to any scientific workout planniing.
There is the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) Bench Press method where the Personal Trainer uses a fixed resistance (40 lb. for women and 60 lb. for men.) The client does as many repetitions as possible in one minute, or reaches failure, whichever comes first. The YMCA method does give a Bench Press endurance measurement to use for future comparisons, but it supplies no information usable for scientific workout planning except for the Bench Press.
There is the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) method where the Personal Trainer first guesses at what a light weight resistance might be for the client and then has them do a fixed number of repetitions with it. If the client completes that first set of resistance/repetitions the Personal Trainer guesses at a higher resistance/repetition for them to try. This process continues until the client eventually fails. The NSCA method may or may not supply usable information for scientific workout planning depending whether the test measure is a one repetition maximum or a multi-repetition maximum.
There is the BioFitness method where the Workout Planning Specialist supervises a Strength Test that is pre-detailed for the client and designed to test each exercise separately. The Workout Planning Specialist guides the client through each stage of the predetermined resistances and repetitions until they fail. This is the client's absolute maximum. The BioFitness method does supply usable information for scientific workout planning!

Please remember, if you find this material too difficult to use, The Fitness Buddy makes it easy and automatic for you, in real-time, on-line.

Terms & Definitions Optimize: (Webster) Optimize is to establish a program which will automatically adapt itself to achieve maximum efficiency.

Progress: (Webster) Progress is forward or onward movement; continuous improvement.

Degress: (Webster) Degress is a going down; descent.

Maintain: (Webster) Maintain is to preserve or keep in any particular state or condition

Force (F): (Exercise Physiology) Force is an accelerating mass (F =m x a, where m = mass and a = acceleration). A weight is a force.

Work (W): (Exercise Physiology) Work is the product of force times the distance through which that force acts: W = F x D (Work = Force x Distance)

Power (P): (Exercise Physiology) Power is defined as work performed per unit of time P = F x D)/T (Power = Force x Distance divided by Time).

Repetition (rep): (Exercise Science) A repetition is a single complete movement as when a muscle contracts/flexes and then relaxes/extends.

Set: (Exercise Science) A set is a group of repetitions.

Step One: How to Make the Routine The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) wrote, "The number of exercises adopted with the aim of developing strength is established in practice empiracally. With an optimum number of exercises (4 - 6) a sufficiently effective load is maintained in every one of them. A large number of exercises, with which the volume of load is sharply increased, turns out to have a negative influence. but a small number of exercises creates monotony in training because of insuffecient emotion arising from tiredness. Thus the number of exercises adopted in training and the number of repetitions must be stricktly limited."

Before a Workout Planning Specialist can Strength Test the client they must first design the client's Workout Routine. A Workout Routine is the selection and sequencing of specific exercises for defined purposes i.e. upper body, lower body, and full body exercise, etc. Making a Routine requires that the Workout Planning Specialist understand how to select and organize exercise movements by muscle size and skeletal leverage. See Planning Anaerobic Exercise and use your browser Back button to return.

The first step to building a client's Routine is to select the amount and types of exercises to have the client do. Although the client may request a specific area of need, the Workout Planning Specialist must always keep in mind that their number one responsibility is the clients safety. BioFitness believes that to ignore the requirements of total body health care at the expense of vanity is both irresponsible and unsafe. It predisposes the client to imbalances in their muscular skeletal system. Every Routine of exercise selections should cover the whole body while emphasising the areas the client is most concerned with.

Choosing the number of exercises involves taking into consideration both the client's time and energy. The longer the client's exercise session lasts, the less energy they have available to exercise with. When a Workout Plan is constructed with scientific Workload Management, the exercises in the Routine need to be selected carefully for quality rather than quantity. Otherwise, the Workout Planning Specialist will find their client prematurely fading from fatigue during the session. The last exercises in the session will be done ineffectually! The client will experience slow results and quickly become overtrained. See Muscles and Energy and use your browser Back button to return.

To conserve energy for maximum utilization during the sessions, the BioFitness Institute recommends the Workout Planning Specialist choose no more then 6/8 exercises for Body Building Routines, 4/6 exercises for Sports Routines and 4/6 exercises for Weightlifting. The underlying principal is that a single exercise will optimize muscle work when planned right. When done correctly this eliminates the need for exercise redundancy (two or more exercises for one muscle group.) The client can now focus on results rather than busy work. An analogy would be that a plane going 500 mph on four separate occasions is not the same as a plane going 2000 mph at one time. Both planes will reach their destination but the 2000 mph plane is safer (less landing and takeoffs), arrives quicker, and has a longer service lifetime

Each exercise chosen must be sequenced and tested separately in order to determine the client's strength. If doing Body Building the Workout Planning Specialist should sequence each exercise from the biggest muscle groups to the smallest muscle group. If doing Weightlifting or other Athletic Sports, the exercises are sequenced from the quick (high speed) power movements to the slow (low speed) strength movements. Another way to follow this rule is to go from the heaviest resistance to the lightest resistance movements when Body Building and from the lightest resistance to the heaviest resistance movements when Weightlifting or Athletic Sports training. A Routine by itself is neither a Strength Test nor Workout Plan.

Example: Body Building exercises sequence from large to small muscle groups.


Before Sequencing      After Sequencing

Bench Press            Half Squat
Barbell Curl           Deadlift
Reverse Curl           Leg Extension
Half Squat             Leg Curl
Deadlift               Bench Press
Shrug                  Shrug     
Leg Extension          Barbell Curl
Leg Curl               Reverse Curl

Example: Weightlifting exercises sequence from fast to slow.

Before Sequencing     After Sequencing

Clean and Jerk        Drop Snatch
Power Clean           Snatch
Snatch High Pull      Snatch Pull
Snatch                Push Press 
Push Press            Power Clean
Drop Snatch           Clean & Jerk        
Full Squat            Full Squat

Once the Workout Planning Specialist has decided on the exercise Routine (selection and sequencing of the exercise) it is important to determine the starting weight resistance for the Strength Test. To do this correctly, the chosen exercises need to be broken down by their size and leverage. An exercise using a larger muscle mass and/or easier leverage, like a Half Squat, will have a higher weight/resistance starting point as compared to an exercise using a smaller muscle mass and/or harder leverage, like Biceps Curl. BioFitness believes that all exercise variations can be structured into four distinct categories, i.e. Type I, Type II, Type III and Type IV and the starting weight resistance adapted accordingly. See Resistance and Movement and use your browser Back button to return.


Example:

Type I           Type II           Type III         Type IV

Reverse Curl     Bicep Curl        Bench Press      Half Squat      
Leg Curl         Leg Extension     Calve Raise      Leg Press

Workout Planning Specialist/Client Precautions!

Get the physicians written approval for exercise if the client is under medical care.
Always have the client read and sign the Advise and Consent Form before the 1st Strength Test.
Always recommend a physicians examination when a beginner is unable to do a single repetition with the lightest testing resistance (see starting percentage table below)


Starting Percent of Body Weight

Months of Experience  0 

Exercises     Type I     Type II     Type III     Type IV 
 
women            6%        15%         30%          40% 
men             10%        25%         40%          50% 

For aging the Starting Resistance is reduced by .8% each year after age 29!