Exercise Prescription

1. Exercise Prescription • The exercise prescription should be developed with careful consideration of the individual’s health status (including medications), risk factor profile, behavioral characteristics, personal goals and exercise preferences.

2. Purposes • Various purposes of exercise prescription include enhancing physical fitness, promoting health by reducing risk factors for chronic disease, and ensuring safety during exercise participation.

3. Purposes • In all cases, specific outcomes identified for a particular person should be the ultimate target of the exercise prescription.

4. Caution • When an exercise prescription is given by a non-licensed health care provider, it is important that the provider not independently present a prescription which would otherwise be utilized for the purposes of treating or alleviating disease or illness.

5. Caution • Such prescriptions must necessarily be limited to those who are authorized by law to provide such recommendations.

6. Caution • In practice, this typically translates into the co-signing of a prescription by a physician.

7. Principles of Conditioning • Specificity • Overload • Progression • Individual differences • Reversibility

8. Basic Elements • F = Frequency • I = Intensity • T = Time or duration • S = Specific exercise or mode

9. Quantity • The quantity of exercise needed to significantly reduce disease risk appears to be considerably less than that needed to develop and maintain high levels of physical fitness.

10. Art • Given the diverse nature and health needs of the population, guidelines cannot be applied in an overly rigid or precise fashion.

11. Art • The techniques presented should be used with flexibility and with careful attention paid to the goals of the individual.

12. Art • Exercise prescriptions will require modification in accordance with observed individual responses and adaptations because:

13. Art • Physiological and perceptual responses to acute exercise vary. • Adaptations to exercise training vary in terms of magnitude and rate of development.

14. Art • Desired outcomes based on individual need(s) may be obtained with exercise programs that vary considerably in their structure.

15. Art • Behavioral adaptation to the exercise prescription is likewise quite variable.

16. Art • A fundamental objective of exercise prescription is to bring about a change in personal health behavior to include habitual physical activity.

17. Art • Thus, the most appropriate exercise prescription for a particular person is the one that is most useful in achieving this behavioral change.

18. Art • The art of exercise prescription is the successful integration of exercise science with behavioral techniques that result in long-term program compliance and attainment of the individual’s goals.

19. Art • As such, knowledge of methods to change health behaviors is essential.

20. Stages of Progression • Initial training stage: • Stretching exercises, light calisthenics, and low intensity aerobic or resistive exercises.

21. Stages of Progression • Have your clients progress slowly by increasing exercise duration first, followed by small increases in exercise intensity.

22. Stages of Progression • The initial stage of the exercise program may be skipped for some physically active individuals, provided that their initial fitness level is good-to-excellent and they are accustomed to the exercise modes prescribed for their programs.

23. Stages of Progression • Improvement Stage: • During this stage the frequency, intensity, and duration systematically and slowly progress, increasing one element at a time, until the client’s fitness goal is reached.

24. Stages of Progression • This stage typically lasts 4 to 5 months and the rate of progression is more rapid compared to the initial stage.

25. Stages of Progression • Maintenance Stage • Usually beings after 6 months. • Continues on a regular, long-term basis.