Perception of fitness and fitness testing in healthy adults.

摘要

Increased disease risk is associated with low cardiovascular fitness levels and obesity, and low muscular fitness and flexibility can reduce mobility and limit daily activities. Adults are rarely fitness tested to assess these risks. Literature on perception of fitness has assessed many ways of predicting fitness, but the results are not consistent and none evaluated all the components of a complete fitness model. This study asked subjects to predict their fitness measurements in four components of fitness and overall fitness. The results of the study found that subjects overestimated cardiovascular fitness and flexibility while underestimating percent of body fat and muscular fitness. Furthermore, obese subjects have an inaccurate perception of body composition compared to non-obese subjects. Overall fitness was perceived to be higher than any of the fitness component perceptions. Fitness testing is recommended as a useful tool since perception of fitness is not accurate enough to predict fitness levels.