Medical and Lifestyle Questionnaire/ Fitness Assessments
I believe that I am overall fit and healthy person. I have been an active person my whole
life and consistently try to work out on daily basis. Throughout my life I have not had any
problems while exercising or working out. In my life I have only had one serious injury which
was a torn ACL due to a sports injury 7 years ago. My family has no major health issues or
diseases so genetically I am healthy. My blood pressure is normal along with cholesterol. I know
this because I receive physicals each year. Therefore, according to American College of Sports
Medicine, I fall into the low risk category. I am devoted to living an active lifestyle which
includes incorporating exercise and nutrition as a whole. Although I find myself putting in the
time to complete well-rounded workouts; however, I find that my eating habits are not as
healthy as they should be. This is a concern due to my always on the go from class and softball
which takes up majority of my time.
After completing my initial fitness assessment for majority of my components I fell
under average percentile. The components I scored above average in included agility, balance,
and muscular endurance. My flexibility I scored poorly in, which was the sit and reach test. I
would like to increase my flexibility by 3 or more inches for the next time I perform the sit and
reach test. To improve my flexibility I will stretch throughout the day along especially after my
workouts. I would also like to increase my speed by .5 of a sec of more when performing the 50
yard dash. The best way for me to prepare myself is to keep performing sprints at 50 yards into
my workouts. I would like to increase these numbers for quality of life as well as athlete ability
in softball. Even though my body mass index falls into the obesity percentile I believe that is due
to the amount of muscle mass I have. I would like to decrease my BMI this semester from 26.2
to 25 but overtime I would like to reach 22.5. I would like to eventually find my true body mass
index form the skin fold test and hydrostatic underwater weighing.
This semester I am going to work hard to participate in exercise as much as possible but
due to time management as a college student and full time athlete makes it harder to exercise
in the ways I would like to. I try my best to balance my time between academics,
practices/games and daily life responsibilities along with eating healthy. A problem I face is lack
of motivation and drive to go exercise when I am alone. Unless I am working out with the team
at practice or have another person to workout I tend to push off exercising. At the moment my
teammates are great motivators and have helped me to work above and beyond while working
out. My goal in my workout plan is to find types of workout that I will enjoy so I will follow
through with these exercises in my everyday lifestyle. I am going to work hard over these next
couple weeks to go work out on my free time because I believe self motivation is the key for me
to become successful after I am done participating in colligate sports. If I can develop the same
motivation I have towards softball into my daily lifestyle workouts, I know I will be able to
succeed in meeting my goals for the semester as well as the future.
Strengths
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Awareness of fitness & nutrition
No Medical History
Fitness assessment
1. Agility
2. Balance
Weaknesses
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Time Management
Self Motivation
Diet/Nutrition
Flexibility especially Hamstrings
Goal Setting
Short Term
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I would like to prevent eating unhealthy foods and late night eating. Start eating
breakfast, lunch, and dinner along with snacking on healthy foods.
I would like to decrease my calorie intake and moderate the size of my foods I consume.
I will become more aware of what I am eating and decrease my intake of carbohydrates,
increase my intake of fruits and vegetables.
I would like to increase my lifting regimen in order to target more major muscle groups.
Long Term
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I would like to lose weight and become more muscularly toned. Primary I would like to
reduce my percentage of body fat and strengthen my core area.
I would like increase my speed and foot work. I want to become more explosive off my
starting position.
I would like to increase my flexibility in my hamstrings and my rotator cuff muscles.
My Plan
The way I plan on meeting my goals this semester is to make some minor changes in my
current lifestyle. I will start setting goals that I know I will be able to reach over this semester. I
will make sure they are attainable so it will keep me motivated. The way I will obtain my
exercise plan will be primary based on rowan softball team work ethics. First off, I will
participate in a velocity program that will be held twice a week for an hour, which will cover a
lot of areas such as flexibility, power, balance and strength. The program will be based on speed
and agility workouts provided by a teammate who has had experience in the field. First the
warm-up will consist of dynamic stretches such as insteps, shuffles, squats, quads, toy soldiers,
inch worm etc. Then 3 sets of 3 different works outs nonstop, such as 20 jumping jacks, fast
insteps, toe touch into jump and etc. Then the workout will consist of quick feet related
mechanics with sprinting involved. We use hurdles and ladders for lateral and forward
movements then work on power position and taking first step forward into our sprint work so
our momentum is forward which will help with our techniques out of batter’s box and on the
bases. After that, core workout will consist of 3 sets of planks (hold 30 sec), dead bugs (one leg
each, hold 15 sec each), Russian twist (50) and toe touches (20). The holding mechanism in the
core workouts really challenges you to tighten your abdominal muscles. Secondly, I will be
working out twice or more a week in the weight room for an hour, alternating days for arms
and legs along with flexibility and core workouts. Arms workouts include arm rows and pushups
and pull-ups. Legs include a lot of squats and leg presses. I will make sure to lift my arms and
legs along with increasing the flexibility of my muscles and strengthening my core. In this
exercise plan, I will also incorporate exercises on my own time which will include going into the
rec center gym to run on the track and elliptical before classes or practices to focus on my
cardiovascular endurance. I will also be performing daily a lot of extensive sprinting in the gym
and outside to increase my speed. I also plan to lift on my free time using free weights to keep
my muscles toned. I think that if I can incorporate free weights into my daily routine (i.e.
watching television) I will fall into a positive workout routine. Lastly, I will work on scheduling
work outs using a calendar so I can visually see and track my workouts. This will help me see
how to schedule my routines as well as keep track of my past work outs.
Analysis of Goals and Program
My overall exercise program and goals for this semester ended up resulting in some
success. I set goals that I could complete and lead me to living a healthier lifestyle that I can
continue throughout my life. My goals were to start eating healthier, build self confidence, and
increase my speed and flexibility all of which were pursued through my new workout and
nutrition plan. My workout plan included velocity, lifting, softball and working out constantly.
Now that the semester is over I believe I did improve upon some of my goals, however I did not
end up to where I believe my full potential could be in cardiovascular endurance.
Throughout the entire semester I did my best to improve upon my goals. The goals that
I set like improving my nutrition like losing weight were successful. I have only lost 4 pounds
which increased my BMI from 26.2 to 25.6. I know this is not a rapid change and is not
completely accurate but it is a start to my long term goals. I started by eating less of
carbohydrates including pasta sides and potatoes and replacing with vegetables like broccoli
and carrots. This helped me a lot in my diet because I was able to become fuller and satisfied
without overeating carbohydrates. While in season I tend to fall off track of my eating schedule
so I made that a priority to cook more meals at home with my teammates rather than going to
cafeteria or fast food places. I also made sure I would eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner at
reasonable times to reduce over eating and snacking late at night. Looking back at this semester
I barely ate fast foods and stuck to eating less of red meats and more of chicken and turkey
also. During away games of softball, I couldn’t resist eating fast foods and pizza because they
were the only places we stopped; however, by not eating it every other day I was able to make
that small sacrifice.
My second goal that I feel I completed was increased my flexibility in my hamstrings
which were unbelievably tight and sore before and after workouts. By incorporating dynamic
stretches for hamstrings and other static stretches, it helped me become a lot more flexible. I
also would go see the trainers before and after practice which helped me a lot. The sit and
reach test I approved 2 inches from pretest (11inches) to posttest (13 inches). I feel that there is
still a lot of improvement but this is a type of goal that needs time to improve.
Another goal was to become quicker on my feet and more explosive on my starting
position. By using velocity, I was able to increase my agility and speed a little bit, but again I
know this is something that I can continue to improve upon over time. I also thought that
through lifting I would develop more muscular strength; however, I may not be working the
correct muscle groups so that is something I wish to improve on in the future. I know I am not
fast, therefore I know I will have to work harder to develop my speed by incorporating several
key areas and components of fitness.
As the semester went on I was able to incorporate better time management and routine
using a calendar and agenda book to keep track of my time. Instead of going home in between
class and practice times, I would use this time to complete homework and exercise. I would go
to the rec center to run on the track or elliptical for 20 to 30 minutes and then I would go to the
computer lab to complete homework. I would also pack lunches like peanut butter and jelly and
snacks like trail mix and granola bar to get me through the day. Using my time efficiently made
me able to stay motivated while completing all of my tasks. After this semester is over I am
excited to plan an intense workout routine that can go hand and hand with my lifestyle. I plan
to use these strategies to stay motivated and dedicate a good amount of my time to exercise
and nutrition.
My goals were accomplished to the best of ability for the time I had. I believe that all of
my goals will eventually be obtained if I continue to follow the workout routine that I created
during the semester and incorporate it with others. As far as losing weight, obtaining more
flexibility, speed, and muscular strength, I know that time is my only factor and I am willing to
put in all of the hard work and determination.