Book Review - Advanced Fitness Assessment and Exercise Prescription
Advanced Fitness Assessment and Exercise Prescription
Written by: Vivian H. Heyward 2006 Human Kinetics
ISBN-12:978-0-7360-5732-5
Reviewed by: Donna Hutchinson
Advanced Fitness Assessment and Exercise Prescription provides a comprehensive approach on how to perform and interpret fitness assessment results. The information is then applied to individual program design. The assessments covered are cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular fitness, flexibility, body weight and composition.
The book does not bog the reader down with too much technical jargon and I especially liked the format. It covers the specific assessments in one chapter and then follows up with a chapter on program design making the information more practically oriented. The reader can then see the link between the assessment done and how to incorporate that information into a program.
Having taken a fitness assessment course with hands on experience, I found this book to be a good refresher and review of the protocols. If I were to try and learn how to perform fitness assessments having never done them before, an accompanying DVD would have been especially useful to see how the assessments are performed. However, the book does try to break each assessment down in a step-by-step approach so in this way the author is attempting to make it as clear as possible. Human Kinetics also offers a supplemental online course which contains access to additional course material and exams allowing for a more distance education feel.
There are over 90 pages of supplemental material in the appendices including forms, norm tables, pictures and diagrams of assessments. However, some of the pictures in the flexibility section could use updating as correct postural positioning was not always taken into account.
Overall I enjoyed the book and felt it would make a nice addition to a fitness leaders’ library and a good resource on fitness assessments.
Written by: Vivian H. Heyward 2006 Human Kinetics
ISBN-12:978-0-7360-5732-5
Reviewed by: Donna Hutchinson
Advanced Fitness Assessment and Exercise Prescription provides a comprehensive approach on how to perform and interpret fitness assessment results. The information is then applied to individual program design. The assessments covered are cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular fitness, flexibility, body weight and composition.
The book does not bog the reader down with too much technical jargon and I especially liked the format. It covers the specific assessments in one chapter and then follows up with a chapter on program design making the information more practically oriented. The reader can then see the link between the assessment done and how to incorporate that information into a program.
Having taken a fitness assessment course with hands on experience, I found this book to be a good refresher and review of the protocols. If I were to try and learn how to perform fitness assessments having never done them before, an accompanying DVD would have been especially useful to see how the assessments are performed. However, the book does try to break each assessment down in a step-by-step approach so in this way the author is attempting to make it as clear as possible. Human Kinetics also offers a supplemental online course which contains access to additional course material and exams allowing for a more distance education feel.
There are over 90 pages of supplemental material in the appendices including forms, norm tables, pictures and diagrams of assessments. However, some of the pictures in the flexibility section could use updating as correct postural positioning was not always taken into account.
Overall I enjoyed the book and felt it would make a nice addition to a fitness leaders’ library and a good resource on fitness assessments.
posted by Donna Hutchinson @ 1:48 PM
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