Sparky Under Wraps: WLB - Week 5 - Post 2 (Fitness Assessment)

Originally posted on my Win, Lose, or Blog blog when I was a Win, Lose, or Blog season seven contestant.

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A couple weeks ago I mentioned I had a fitness assessment. My employer provides the fitness assessments free of charge to employees and at a very low cost to the community. I had my first fitness assessment last October. I was about 6 weeks into living healthier and wanted a starting (although delayed) point so I could see my progress by more than what my scale and my clothing told me. While the drop in the numbers on the scale and in my clothing size are fantastic, they don't really tell me about my health. If I am living healthier I should have some proof.

Source: yes-butno.tumblr.com via jnet on Pinterest

At the fitness assessment they start by taking a resting hear rate and resting blood pressure. Then grip strength is tested. Then the ever so fun weight, waist circumference, BMI, and percent body fat. Once those are taken care of cardiovascular fitness is measured by putting on a heart rate monitor and walking on the treadmill (4 minutes a 0% grade and 4 minutes at 5% grade)--the individual preforming the fitness assessment adjusts the speed on the treadmill to keep your heart rate at a predetermined rate. After the treadmill comes flexibility (sit-and-reach), abdominal fitness (crunches), and pushups. For flexibility the best of three is taken, abdominal fitness is the number of crunches completed in 60 seconds, and pushups is the number completed without resting.

Source: annagoesfit.blogspot.com via Elizabeth on Pinterest

In a little over four months I lost 22 lbs. which resulted in improvement of my BMI, waist circumference, and percent body fat. I also had improvement in my cardiovascular fitness, flexibility, and abdominal fitness. My resting HR and BP were both higher than last time and I am not quite sure why. I am going to go have them taken another day to see if they are still higher. If so, I might want to look into that. I also didn't do as many push-ups but I was still in the "good" classification. It is my hope that the strength training I do on Tuesdays and Thursdays will help this.