SYLLABUS CONTENT

How can exercise assessment and prescription be personalised?

• Explain how exercise assessment can assist in developing training programs

What is Fitness?

Fitness is defined as your body’s ability to meet the demands of daily life, sport, or exercise without getting overly tired. It helps you stay healthy, active, and able to perform tasks effectively.

Considering that definition, has your perception about the above athletes changed? and Why? 

The Components of Fitness

Fitness is made up of different components that describe the specific abilities our bodies need to function and perform. Some components relate to general health, like having a strong heart, healthy muscles, and good mobility, while others are more about skills used in sport, such as speed, agility, or balance. For athletes, focusing on the right components helps them meet the demands of their sport and improve performance. For the general population, developing these components supports daily activities, prevents injury, and improves long-term health and participation. They are divided into two categories:

1. Health Related Components

2. Skill Related Components

Testing for Elite and Recreational Athletes: Key differences

Although both recreational participants and elite athletes test for similar reasons, health, participation, and performance, the focus and detail differ.

Elite athletes place a far greater emphasis on performance optimisation, injury prevention, and recovery monitoring. They utilise specialist technology and expert support teams (sports scientists, physiologists,) to make highly detailed, sport-specific measurements. Testing is often scheduled strategically (e.g., pre-season, mid-season, post-injury) and results can influence team selection, tactics, and training loads. For elites, even tiny improvements, fractions of a second or a few centimetres, can make the difference between winning and losing.

Recreational participants, in contrast, generally test to improve overall health, enjoyment, and motivation. Their testing is less specialised, more accessible, and often self-directed. The goal is usually to track general progress (e.g., becoming fitter, reducing health risks, staying active), rather than maximising performance outcomes.

Research Questions:

1. Outline what the recreational test involves (equipment, procedure, what it measures).

2. Outline what the elite test involves (equipment, procedure, what it measures).

3. Compare the accuracy and detail of results between the recreational and elite tests, and explain how the results are used differently (e.g., motivation/health vs performance optimisation/team selection).