Physical Activity, Fitness and Lifestyle Appraisal
West Coast Kinesiology utilizes the CSEP Physical Activity Training for Health (CSEP-PATH) health-related physical fitness assessment and counseling strategy to help our clients make permanent positive changes in their life. The CSEP-PATH represents a series of standardized testing and counseling procedures developed by the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (CSEP) that is appropriate for the general public or athletes (refer to www.csep.ca for more info). The assessment is commonly used as a measure for the health-related fitness of the general population and is administered on over a million Canadians each year by trained CSEP health and fitness professionals (CSEP, 2003).
The CSEP-PATH appraisal includes pre-appraisal screening and objective measures of physical activity participation, metabolic fitness, body composition, aerobic fitness, musculoskeletal fitness, and back fitness. Following the assessment an individually tailored physical activity participation counseling session that focuses on the results of the CSEP-PATH assessment can be administered.
Upon completion of this assessment you will receive a summary or ‘snapshot’ of your current physical health-related fitness and an ‘action plan’ to help you reach your health goals. The fitness test takes average of 1 hour to complete.
More specifically, the new CSEP-PATH includes the following assessments:
Baseline Measurements
- Resting Heart Rate
- Resting Blood Pressure
Anthropometric Measurements
- Height & Weight
- BMI – Body Mass Index
- WC – Waist Circumference
Aerobic Fitness
- Cardiovascular evaluation (sub-maximal test of aerobic fitness with a predicted VO2 max) using a step-test protocol.
Musculoskeletal Fitness
- Push-ups (muscular endurance)
- Vertical Jump (peak leg power) and distance
- Back Extension (lower back strength and muscular endurance)
- Grip Strength (muscular strength)
- Sit and Reach (lower back / hamstring flexibility)
- Balance on one leg with eyes open and eyes closed
THIS IS A TEST THAT IS USED BY THE JUSTICE INSTITUTE OF BC AS PART OF THEIR ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS TO THE FIREFIGHTING AND THE PARAMEDIC TRAINING PROGRAMS. Contact the JIBC if you have questions about being currently required to take this test.
https://www.jibc.ca
To schedule an appointment for your fitness test call 604-467-4675. The fee for this appraisal is $125 (includes GST) and usually takes about 1 to 1¼ hours. Payment is either by Debit, Mastercard or Visa. The appraiser is required to fill out and sign test results form that you need to submit in your application package. This form will be emailed the day following the test or in some cases the same day.
Do not eat, smoke or drink alcohol or caffeine for at least 2 hours before the appraisal. Do not exercise or do physical work for at least 6 hours before the appraisal, and preferably no physical exercise at all on the day of the test. Not following these instructions may adversely affect your test results on the appraisal. Also, trying to “cram” for the test by doing extra-hard exercise sessions 2-3 days before the appraisal will not work and may also even adversely affect your results causing fatigue on the day of the test.
Come to the testing session in exercise clothes and running shoes. Don’t forget to bring a Covid mask
This Justice Institute of BC page describes the process in more detail, including what forms you will need to collect and submit from your appraiser.
The test is administered by a Certified Exercise Physiologist who is listed as a registered appraiser by CSEP https://csep.ca/
You can book an appointment on this web-site by clicking the ‘book appointment’ button on the home-page or on various other pages on this web-site. Choose Kerry Senchyna and then ‘Fitness Test’ to see the openings in his schedule and then book the appointment.
FAQs:
The CSEP-PATH has a scoring system which rates and measures your fitness scores against your age category (15-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49 etc) and gender of Canada’s general population. The results are based on a vast amount of data accumulated over many years of testing participants and scored on a bell-curve for each age/gender category. We often get questions about what are good or acceptable scores, but there are too many categories of age and gender combinations to give an indication. Also, JIBC chooses it’s own pass/fail standards which we have no knowledge of. This creates a proper ‘double-blind’ testing situation where the participants and the appraiser do not know what the passing scores are. Results will be emailed to you about one day after the test but in some cases, on the same day.
The cardiovascular test is a graded, sub-maximal step test that lasts for 3 minutes per stage and a maximum of 5 stages (15 minutes max) up t0 a maximum of 85% of your maximal heart rate. This test will give a specific value of your VO2max in ml/Kg/minute (ie: how much oxygen you are able to utilize in one minute per kilogram of body mass). Balance test involves balancing on one leg with eyes open and then eyes closed for a maximum of 45 seconds. Flexibility is the best of two trials with the Sit-and-Reach test. Grip strength is the best of two maximum grip trials with each hand. Push-ups are done with hands shoulder width apart and doing a continuous maximum number with no time restraint – full body for men and from the knees for women. Participant must lower themselves to within one fist distance to the floor on each repetition. The jump test allows three trials to jump as high as possible from a static start position. The back strength test involves holding your prone body position for as long as possible for a maximum of three minutes (see picture below).
Pictures of the tests. Click on the pdf document to view csep test pictures20200918