Cardiorespiratory Assessment and Prescription

For this assignment, you will assess your personal cardiorespiratory fitness level and develop a cardiorespiratory exercise plan for yourself. If you are unable to personally complete any of these tasks due to health concerns, please contact your instructor immediately. For this assignment, you will:

1. Examine and describe the relationship between cardiorespiratory endurance and wellness using examples from your course text, Wellness: Concepts and Applications (8th ed.), and at least one scholarly article.
2. Assess your cardiorespiratory fitness level.
   • Complete either “The 1.5 Mile Run/Walk Test” (Assessment Activity 3-2 on page 103) or “The 3-Minute Bench Step Test” (Assessment Activity 3-3 on page 105). The Rockport Fitness Walking Test is not an option as it is assigned in a previous course (HCS323).
     • Summarize the methods of the test.
     • Provide your exact results.
       • Length of time to complete The 1.5 Mile Run/Walk Test or
   • Post-exercise heart rate (beats per minute-BPM) for one minute after The 3-Minute Bench Step Test
   • Describe the conclusion you can make based on these results.
     • Identify your fitness category based on your sex and age range.
3. Develop a cardiorespiratory exercise plan that will help you achieve the next level of fitness in your selected test.
   • The first step for developing an exercise plan is to determine your fitness goals. Typically, your goals should be to increase to the next higher fitness category level or to maintain your current fitness level. For this assignment, assume your goal is to achieve the next level of cardiorespiratory fitness for your selected test.
   • The next step is to examine current guidelines for fitness and decide how they can be incorporated into your plan. Review the exercise guidelines from the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), Institute of Medicine (IOM), and the American Heart Association (AHA) that are listed in Chapter 3 of Wellness: Concepts and Applications (8th ed.) on pages 82-83. Select at least three of these recommendations (you may select more) and explain why they would serve as a good basis as you create your exercise plan.
   • Once you have settled on which guidelines to address, your exercise plan should incorporate the frequency, intensity, time or duration, and type or mode (FITT) principles to serve as an outline for what your plan will entail. For this assignment, define and give a brief summary of each of the FITT principles of conditioning. Then, give a specific example for each principle within your plan.
     • Frequency: How many days per week are you going to complete cardiorespiratory exercise? Remember that frequency is dependent upon intensity. Provide a justification for your selection. Which guidelines did you use to help you make this decision?
     • Intensity: Calculate your target heart rate (THR) using the Karvonen formula presented on pages 84-85 in your course text, Wellness: Concepts and Applications (8th ed.), and in the Assessment Activity 3-4 on page 107.
       • Select the training intensity level based on your fitness level results from your selected assessment and using Table 3-3 on page 85. For example, if your assessment results indicate that you were an average fitness level, then you would select a training intensity level of 70%.
       • Indicate the target heart rate range at which you should complete your activity.
     • Time (or duration): Use Table 3-2 to help you determine the duration of each exercise session based on frequency and intensity. Describe which evidence-based guidelines you are using to make your decision.
     • Type (or mode): Refer to Tables 3-4 and 3-5 for ideas of different activities that you may be able to engage in to meet your cardiorespiratory exercise plans.