It shocks me that there are Indianapolis personal trainers that don’t perform an effective physical assessment on all of their clients prior to initiating an individualized fitness program.

Perhaps they believe that were all the same?  That we all have the same abilities?  That we all have the same needs?

I think one of the things that sets Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training apart from all the other gyms and fitness centers is our initial assessment.  Some may claim to perform a complete assessment, but in our opinion, taking someone’s blood pressure, body fat measurements, and then performing a sit-and-reach test or three minute step test just doesn’t cut it as an effective assessment.

An effective assessment determines the difference between where you are now and where you will be when you achieve your sport-specific or personal fitness goals.

Here’s a general idea of what our assessment entails:

1. General Health Measures

This includes the completion of our initial health history survey, body composition measurement, blood pressure, and body part circumference and postural alignment measures.

2.  Static Posture Assessment

Static posture provides clues in regard to adaptations in your skeletal alignment and areas of muscle tightness, stiffness, and excessive shortening or lengthening of musculature as you stand against gravity.  Poor posture or significant changes from ideal skeletal alignment may result in altered joint positions during movement resulting in progressive wear’n’tear on joint surfaces as well as potential muscle strains or joint sprains during fitness-related or sporting activities.

3.  General Mobility and Flexibility Assessment

Assessing passive and active movement of all of your joints provide even more information in regard to your potential for injury and your ability to perform your favorite fitness or sport-specific activities.  Limitations in joint range of motion not only reduce your ability to perform at your best on the playing field, but they also increase your risk of joint or muscle injury that keeps you out of gym or off the field.  Areas of restricted movement typically cause compensations at other joints in the body that result in excessive joint motion that leads to potentially serious injuries or more subtle overuse injuries that seem to appear out of nowhere.

4.  Core Strength and Core Endurance Assessment

Optimal function of your abdominal muscles, hip muscles, and lower back muscles is essential for peak performance on the court or field and to achieve your personal fitness goals.

Not only does an effectively functional core contribute to lower back health, but it influences performance and function of the hips and shoulders by providing a stable foundation for the arms and legs.

5.  Isolated Muscle Testing

Weakness in key areas of the body such as the muscles around the shoulders and shoulder blades, the hips, neck, and ankles not only limit sport-specific performance, but put us all at risk for injury for those of us who have physical jobs or get stuck behind a desk sitting at a computer all day.

Identifying these areas of muscle imbalance or weakness and bringing them up to normal, or in some cases turning them into strengths, keep us ache and pain-free and raise performance to the athlete’s level of potential.

6.   General Strength and Power Testing

Testing the larger muscle groups with exercises like the bench press, back squats or front squats, power cleans, vertical jump, etc. allows us to test the athlete or fitness enthusiasts structural muscle balance as well as assess technique with the most commonly used basic strength and power exercises.

We can also test a variety of strength and power measures such as maximal strength, relative strength, reactive strength, and explosive strength depending on the needs of the individual and their sport or activity of choice.

7.  Energy System Testing and Endurance Testing

Energy is produced via different systems of the body depending on the sport or activity in question.  For instance, the energy produced to sprint 100 meters is different from that required to run 5 miles.  By testing each client depending on their sport-specific or activity needs, we can identify whether the individual is lacking in their ability to produce optimal levels of energy for peak performance.

Only after completing an effective assessment do we then create your individualized exercise or training program.  This allows you to exercise with the highest level of safety and performance at all times.