To bring today’s educated client into a fitness club, it is no longer sufficient to stress the benefits of improved health and fitness. Your primary challenge, in these times of technology and information, is to demonstrate that your health club is the best club on the market – providing advanced and customized solutions to fit your members’ needs. (It gets even more difficult to keep members happy and satisfied with their health and fitness improvements after they’ve joined your club.)
Merely words are not sufficient to achieve success in bringing prospective members to your doors. Today, customers want to rely upon objective information and technological solutions. One of the most effective tools offered to you on the market to solve this problem is the technology based on Heart Rate Variability analysis. Assessment based on Heart Rate Variability analysis has been recognized by physiologists as a reliable indicator of fitness level. This method is implemented in a hi-tech fitness product, allowing you to get a quantitative assessment of physical fitness in just three to four minutes based on a computerized fitness score. The fitness test score is displayed on a chart which graphically represents the results of the quantitative analysis of a client’s Heart Rate Variability. This chart is an instant snapshot which immediately demonstrates a client’s fitness and functional rating. The fitness score depends on the ability to mobilize the body’s resources in response to physical stress; it is a combination of wellness and adaptability levels. If a client is not at his or her top performance level, an effective, welldesigned exercise program with a personal trainer will result in a noticeable increase in the level of adaptability, and if combined with the healthy lifestyle, in improved fitness level.
During the introductory session, personal trainers can assess a member’s level of physical fitness and then compare it to their own results. By doing so, the trainer can accomplish multiple tasks:
• Provide a member with a better idea of what needs to be achieved during the training process
• Establish a closer personal connection with the member
• Motivate the member to follow training guidelines in order to achieve measurable results
• Create the groundwork for long-term, trustful customer relations. The idea is simple! A trainer can successfully motivate a member by saying: “Follow my fitness program, and you can achieve the same fitness score.”
The system can be used not only for initial evaluation, but also for reliable monitoring of progress, and it provides immediate feedback on any changes to the customer’s fitness conditions. This allows the trainer to optimize the training program by choosing the most effective approach for a particular client. This fitness assessment can be repeated once every one or two weeks. With such an assessment there is a much greater chance that your clients will become committed to your program – especially when other clubs do not provide such an approach.
This new technology is suitable for a wide range of club members, from beginners to intermediate and advanced level. It can also be used for tracing fluctuations in the fitness score of those members whose fitness score is close to or reaches “athletic.” The assessment is based on a simple three to four minute lying-to-standing test (orthostatic test), or on a more comprehensive test on a bicycleergometer or treadmill, which takes approximately 35 to 40 minutes. All you need for the test is a convenient “Polar” belt that measures heart rate and the Pocket PC with the connected receiver, which is all supplied in one package. After the test, the results are immediately displayed on the screen of your Pocket PC. The system has a client database where information about each client and their tests is stored. It is customizable and can be shared between personal trainers in any fitness facility. Simplicity and precision are at the very core of this device!
Now, let us briefly go over the HRV method. Heart Rate Variability analysis is based on measuring variations in beat-to-beat interval length. The method of analyzing time between each consecutive heartbeat is highly sophisticated because these time intervals are controlled by the brain. HRV method uses the heart as a screen for tracing how the brain (by autonomic innervations to the heart) controls all physiological systems in the body. By performing such an analysis during simple lying-to-standing intervention or workout on a bicycle-ergometer, we can get an idea of how a person’s physiological systems react to physical activity. Assessment based on Heart Rate Variability analysis is scientifically proven to monitor functional integrity of the body and give an accurate fitness evaluation. This method has been studied for more than 25 years and was initially developed for military applications to test fitness levels of pilots, divers, submarine personnel, and other navy and air forces. Later, this method became the subject of an independent review by Columbia University and was validated with excellent results.
Once again, we want to emphasize that new technology provides you with a powerful tool for fitness evaluation and helps trainers to design the most effective individual programs; track each member’s progress, and help to improve each member’s fitness score. For more information on this technology, please visit www.nervexpress.com.
Alexander Riftine, PhD is the President of Heart Rhythm Instruments, Inc. He can be contacted at 732.635.9100, or by email at info@hrinstruments.com.
