Vanessa and Lauren are both 32-year-old women with different levels of exercise experience. Vanessa, who weighs 124 lbs, has lifted weights before but Lauren, who weighs 166 lbs, has never participated in resistance training. Both women participate in initial fitness assessments and want your advice about starting a muscular fitness program at your exercise facility. Choose a different test to measure each woman's upper body muscular strength. Briefly explain the procedures for each assessment. What common errors should you watch for?
For Vanessa, we’ll choose for her to perform a one-rep max assessment, specifically with the bench press. This is because she has experience with lifting weights. To start, she should warm up by completing several submaximal repetitions. We’re going to select an initial weight of 50-70% of her capacity, and progressively increase resistance by 2.5 to 20 kg until the subject cannot complete the repetitions. The final weight lifted should be the absolute 1-RM. Some common error we want to watch for is to make sure that the repetitions are performed at the same speed of movement and range of motion to ensure consistency. Additionally, on the setup portion, we should check the surroundings for hazards, set the bar to the right height for Vanessa based on her arm length, remove safety bars from both sides of the rack, secure weights correctly with safety clips, and have a spotter present. We should also make sure there is a proper progression of weight lifted, she’s not bouncing the bar off her chest, that she’s maintaining a neutral spine, and that she is breathing during the lift. For Lauren, because she has never participated in resistance training, we will select the flexed arm support test, as she may not be able to perform the dynamic push-up assessment properly. To start, she should have her hands outside her shoulders, and keep her back and legs straight. She should lower her body until the upper arm is parallel to the floor or the elbow is flexed at 90 degrees. She should be supporting her body in a push-up position from the knees. Some common mistakes include not breathing during the assessment, having a too-wide or too-narrow width for her hands, not maintaining a straight back and legs, and not lowering her body enough for the assessment.