Contemporary Approaches to Lifestyle Management - Essay Example

Contemporary Approaches to Lifestyle Management Workshops 1-3 Health and fitness testing Aims: There are several aims of these workshops: • develop skills in assessing health-related fitness parameters • To measure personal variables that will provide insight into the health-related fitness of an individual • use the information about health and fitness to establish a personal risk factor profile • understand the relevance of all measured variables as they relate to the health and fitness profile of the individual • understand how the various measures relate in terms of health risks. Introduction: A person’s health status is the result of a combination of many factors including age, sex, lifestyle behaviours, and their interaction with the person’s genetic profile. Measuring the ‘health’ of a person is not a simple matter of one index. In an acute medical setting the important variables that might be used to assess a person’s wellbeing could include level of consciousness, blood pressure, and pupil reaction. A more general approach to assessing health and wellbeing might occur in a GP’s office. In this case variables used to make judgements about health status might involve blood tests, physical examinations and patient history. For the individual looking to gain information relevant to their heath, for example, to answer the question “how healthy am I?” a number of simple, yet informative, measures can be taken. These measures have been carefully and systematically assembled because years of research in populations have shown that they each, in their own way, provide an important window of information about the current health status and future probability of health problems. These measures also assist people to manage their health as guides on decisions about lifestyle behaviours that can, in turn, alter their health. For example, a common health-related marker is fasting blood glucose level. If this is too high then there is an increased probability that the person may develop [or already have] diabetes. Knowing that your fasting BGL is elevated should encourage you to modify your behaviour to help bring it down and control your BGL. Similarly, lower levels of strength are associated with an increased risk of injury. Strength is something that can be developed through lifestyle modification –in this case resistance-type training – and people with lower strength should be encouraged to improve this risk factor. All of the variables that are part of these workshops have been selected because of their close association with health and the probability of developing chronic disease and other illnesses. Practical: Each student will use the proforma provided to record their individual health and fitness profile. The list of variables is shown below and on the proforma – pay particular attention to the methods used to obtain reliable information and to the units of measurement associated with each of the variables. Some measures involve answering questions while others require physical and performance measurements. Over the three weeks provided for this workshop each student will complete the measurements and enter them into the specific software to obtain an overall assessment of their health and fitness. Every participant in the PARA 1007 program must complete pre-exercise screening (Appendix I of the health & fitness lab manual). The screening follows the Sport Medicine Australia, Exercise & Sport Science Australia & Fitness Australia professional guidelines for pre-exercise screening. These questionnaires can be completed prior to the workshops, printed and brought to the workshops as part of the student’s individual laboratory workbook. Students are also required to complete the Active Australia Survey of physical activity patterns (Appendix II of the health & fitness lab manual). List of health-related variables: • Lifestyle factors Physical activity and sedentary behaviours Smoking patterns • Medical history Medical conditions Current medication use Family history • Biophysical measures Anthropometry – height, weight, BMI, skin folds, waist and hip girths Blood pressure Blood lipid profile Blood glucose level Grip strength Flexibility Aerobic fitness (optional) The specific protocols and procedures for measuring these variables can be found in the health & fitness testing laboratory manual on FLO. Please ensure that you familiarise yourselves with these methods prior to the workshops. Questions: What trends are apparent in the height, weight and BMI of Australians shown in the normative tables (in the health & fitness lab manual)? It is noted that their weight is less that their height is greater than their weight and the BMI levels are lower than the weight of Australians. List some reasons why this occurs. This occurs due to the consumption of heavy fat foods that affect our health making us have low BMI’s. Low BMI is an indication of a person’s poor health condition. How do your measured variables compared with the 1992 normative values? The variables were measured manually using the necessary equipment The calculations were then done using the guidelines that are presented in the health and fitness lab Manual. Biophysical measures Date test 1 Date test 2     Anthropometry Height [cm]  161.7   Weight [kg]  60.10   Triceps skin fold [mm]  10.5   Biceps skin fold [mm]  12.0   Subscapular skin fold [mm]  15.0   Waist girth [cm]  77.0   Hip girth [cm]  91.0   Waist hip ratio [cm] 0.85 BMI [weight (kg)/height (m)2] 23.0 Blood profile Systolic blood pressure [mmHg]  126   Diastolic blood pressure [mmHg]  82   Total cholesterol [mmol/L]  3.42   HDL [mmol/L]  0.70   Triglycerides [mmol/L]  0.00   Blood glucose [mmol/L]  4.10   Strength Right grip strength [kg]  31.0   Left grip strength [kg]  26.0       Flexibility sit & reach [± cm]  18.0   Date of test 29/32012 Date of birth 11/01/1980 Age at time of test 32.2 Using the formula below, calculate your heart rate maximum (HRmax). From this predict the range you want your heart rate to sit in at the end of each 3 minute stage of the fitness test. See pp 14-16 of the laboratory manual for detailed instructions on performing this test. OneFitness Workshops 4-7 [1] Measuring heart rate during exercise Aims: The aims of this Spin/RPM workshop are to: • measure and record your heart rate response to aerobic exercise • calculate your energy expenditure • relate energy expended in exercise to energy intake Introduction: Monitoring your heart rate during exercise serves a number of useful purposes: 1. It allows you to monitor your exercise intensity. In general, the higher the intensity of the exercise the higher your heart rate 2. It allows you to safely prescribe exercise within heart rate limits 3. There is evidently a relationship in terms of heart rate together with oxygen when exercising. Practical: You will be provided with a Polar heart rate monitor to wear for the duration of the spin/RPM class. If you have your own heart rate monitor you can wear that instead. You will need to set the watch to your height, weight, date of birth, and sex. Instructions on this will be accorded at the beginning of the class. Questions: 1. What is your maximum heart rate (220- your age)? 187.8 2. At what exercise intensity would you rate the RPM/spin class (moderate, vigorous)? What did you base your rating on (for example; heart rate, sweatiness, rating of perceived exhaustion, tiredness, muscular discomfort)? I rate the exercise intensity to be moderate. My heart rate increased gradually and my sweating was understandable, I felt moderately tired and had no muscular discomfort. 3. How long did the exercise session last for? The session lasted for 25 minutes. 4. What was the highest heart rate recorded during your exercise session? The highest recorded heart rate was 175 beats/min. 5. What was your average heart rate for the entire session? What percentage of your maximum heart rate is this? My average rate for the entire session was 135 beats per minute 6. How many calories did you expend? How many kJ is this? 641.08 calories equivalent to 2692.55 kJ [2] Hearth and fitness changes following 4 weeks of exercise sessions Aims: The aims of the OneFitness workshops are to: • identify and explain which health & fitness measures change with increased exercise • compare health improvements associated with changes in lifestyle to changes found using medication Introduction: The testing you conducted in the health and fitness workshops has allowed you to collect a range of biophysical measures related to your current health and fitness. Following 4 weeks of exercise sessions at OneFitness you should notice measureable changes in some biophysical measures. Biophysical measures Body weight Skin fold measures Waist girth Blood pressure Total cholesterol High density lipoproteins Fasting blood glucose level Grip strength Flexibility Aerobic fitness Questions: 1. List the measures you think may change in a short period of time (4-6 weeks). Body weight Fasting blood glucose levels Blood pressure 2. List those measures you think would require longer periods of behaviour modification to change (>8weeks). Flexibility Body mass index Grip strength Aerobic fitness Waist girth 3. How much of an increase in exercise would a sedentary person need to undertake to change their health risk factors? One has to get involved in daily exercise and increase the intensity if the exercising gradually 3. Which biophysical measures can be improved by using pharmacotherapy? Skin fold measures High density lipoproteins Body weight 4. Which measures were you able to improve either through your lifestyle management plan &/or the exercise sessions at OneFitness? Grip strength Aerobic fitness Body weight Flexibility Fasting blood glucose Total cholesterol 5. What were some of the barriers you experienced when trying to change your behaviour? At first the training seemed vigorous but as I progressed I got to find it easy, the lack of proper equipment in the training ground made the keeping of records difficult. 6. How does low fitness and strength impact on your ability to work as a paramedic? Low fitness and strength means that I will not be able to give full concentration to my Work since my body is not well. It is thus advisable for me if I tried to maintain my Fitness and strength to be effective at my work place. References Timmins, Fiona, and Catherine McCabe. Day surgery : contemporary approaches to nursing care. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 2009. Read More