CSEP Clinical Exercise Physiologists™ are qualified and insured to perform under their defined certification. A CSEP-CEP performs assessments, prescribes conditioning exercise, as well as exercise supervision, counseling and healthy lifestyle education in apparently healthy individuals and/or populations with medical conditions, functional limitations or disabilities associated with musculoskeletal, cardiopulmonary, metabolic, neuromuscular, and aging conditions.
Exercise Physiologists:
- accept referrals from licensed healthcare professionals who are trained and licensed to diagnose and treat acute and chronic medical conditions. The CSEP-CEP may clear clients with one chronic health condition to work with a CSEP-CPT. Further medical clearance should be sought if the health condition is unstable.
- Chronic health conditions they can prescribe exercise for are: cardiovascular conditions (pre or post cardiac surgery) hypertension, hyperlipidemia, obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, COPD, osteoporosis, arthritis, chronic fatigue/FM syndromes, Parkinson’s disease, Cystic Fibrosis, Multiple Scerosis, Muscular Sclerosis, organ transplant, post cancer and many more.
- Use evidence-informed behavior change models to facilitate physical activity and exercise participation, and lifestyle modification. They interpret the results of comprehensive fitness assessment protocols to determine health and physical function.
- Monitor the influence of commonly used medications on the response to sub-maximal and maximal exercise during assessments and/or training sessions. They use the outcomes from objective health and fitness assessments to design and implement safe and effective physical activity and exercise prescriptions for both healthy and unhealthy populations.
- Make general, evidence-informed, dietary recommendations if within the CSEP-CEP’s individual knowledge competency, recognizing when to refer to a registered dietitian for more specialized counseling.
- Conduct group physical activity or exercise sessions with appropriately screened participants. Sessions can include any one or combination of aerobic, resistance, balance, or flexibility exercises within the CSEP-CEP’s individual knowledge competency. Additional training and certification must be sought to ensure that the CSEP-CEP has expert competence for different exercise modalities where necessary.
Cardiovascular Assessment
This test is an evaluation using a step-test protocol. It is classified as a sub-maximal test of aerobic fitness with a predicted VO2 max. This means that, unlike a maximal aerobic test, the protocol raises the participants heart rate to 85% of the maximal rate and the maximal capacity is calculated from the measurements made. The procedure is very safe and gives an extremely accurate prediction of VO2 max.
The following article published in the European Journal of Preventative Cardiology demonstrates the importance of knowing what your VO2 max measures are. The cost of the assessment is $50 and will take 30 minutes to perform.
Charting fitness and mortality
In one of the longest studies of its type, published in the 2016 European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, researchers investigated fitness levels and their effect on lifespan over the course of almost half a century.
A team – led by Dr. Per Ladenvall from the Department of Molecular and Clinical Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden – used data from the “Study of Men Born in 1913.” In total, 792 men were followed for 45 years. The participants were all 50-year-old men when they were recruited in Gothenburg in 1963.
The researchers designed the study to investigate the risk factors for cardiovascular disease and mortality.
In 1967, the group’s members all completed an exercise test; additionally, 656 of the cohort carried out a maximum exercise test where they were required to push themselves to the limit (the others were exempt due to health concerns that might have made the exertion dangerous).
Some of the participants in the maximum exercise group also had their maximal oxygen uptake (
VO2) measured using ergospirometry – a way to continuously measure respiration and gas metabolism during exercise.
Roughly once every 10 years, up until 2012, physical examinations were performed. Information regarding cause of death was obtained from the National Cause of Death Registry.
VO2 max and mortality
In order to analyze the association between VO2 max and mortality, the men were split into three sections (tertiles). They were arranged from low to high – 2.00 liters per minute, 2.26 liters per minute, and 2.56 liters per minute.
A clear pattern emerged: each tertile increase in VO2 max predicted a 21 percent lower risk of death over the 45-year course of the study. This effect remained significant after controlling for blood pressure, smoking, and serum cholesterol levels.
“We found that low aerobic capacity was associated with increased rates of death. The association between exercise capacity and all-cause death was graded, with the strongest risk in the tertile with the lowest maximum aerobic capacity. The effect of aerobic capacity on risk of death was second only to smoking.”
Dr. Per Ladenvall
The study is unique because of the long length of its follow-up; the duration of the study means that there is a wealth of data to mine. Medical News Today asked Dr. Ladenvall if he has plans to analyze any other aspects of the dataset. He said: “In a next step, we are planning to do analyses on fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular events such as myocardial infarction and stroke.”
.
Cardiovascular Assessment
This test is an evaluation using a step-test protocol. It is classified as a sub-maximal test of aerobic fitness with a predicted VO2 max. This means that, unlike a maximal aerobic test, the protocol raises the participants heart rate to 85% of the maximal rate and the maximal capacity is calculated from the measurements made. The procedure is very safe and gives an extremely accurate prediction of VO2 max.
The following article published in the European Journal of Preventative Cardiology demonstrates the importance of knowing what your VO2 max measures are. The cost of the assessment is $50 and will take 30 minutes to perform.
Charting fitness and mortality
In one of the longest studies of its type, published in the 2016 European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, researchers investigated fitness levels and their effect on lifespan over the course of almost half a century.
A team – led by Dr. Per Ladenvall from the Department of Molecular and Clinical Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden – used data from the “Study of Men Born in 1913.” In total, 792 men were followed for 45 years. The participants were all 50-year-old men when they were recruited in Gothenburg in 1963.
The researchers designed the study to investigate the risk factors for cardiovascular disease and mortality.
In 1967, the group’s members all completed an exercise test; additionally, 656 of the cohort carried out a maximum exercise test where they were required to push themselves to the limit (the others were exempt due to health concerns that might have made the exertion dangerous).
Some of the participants in the maximum exercise group also had their maximal oxygen uptake (
VO2) measured using ergospirometry – a way to continuously measure respiration and gas metabolism during exercise.
Roughly once every 10 years, up until 2012, physical examinations were performed. Information regarding cause of death was obtained from the National Cause of Death Registry.
VO2 max and mortality
In order to analyze the association between VO2 max and mortality, the men were split into three sections (tertiles). They were arranged from low to high – 2.00 liters per minute, 2.26 liters per minute, and 2.56 liters per minute.
A clear pattern emerged: each tertile increase in VO2 max predicted a 21 percent lower risk of death over the 45-year course of the study. This effect remained significant after controlling for blood pressure, smoking, and serum cholesterol levels.
“We found that low aerobic capacity was associated with increased rates of death. The association between exercise capacity and all-cause death was graded, with the strongest risk in the tertile with the lowest maximum aerobic capacity. The effect of aerobic capacity on risk of death was second only to smoking.”
Dr. Per Ladenvall
The study is unique because of the long length of its follow-up; the duration of the study means that there is a wealth of data to mine. Medical News Today asked Dr. Ladenvall if he has plans to analyze any other aspects of the dataset. He said: “In a next step, we are planning to do analyses on fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular events such as myocardial infarction and stroke.”
.