First individual: Elliot
On this page I will talk about the strengths, weaknesses and areas of improvement for my first individual Elliot. To find the strenghts, weaknesses and areas of improvement I have went through Elliots health screening questionnaire and when ever I passed across a strength, weakness I would write it down so that I can then give him advice on how to improve the area of improvement. I will talk about the benefits of different aspects.
Here is a list for Elliots areas of improvement:
- Not enough water daily
- Lifestyle is inactive
- Diet is unhealthy
- Stress level
- Medical history e.g. sprained ankle, allergic, upperback pain/chest pain and high blood pressure.
- Dont drink alcohol
- Dont smoke
- Body fat percentage at good level
Areas of Improvement
Not enough water daily
A person should roughly drink from about 1.5 to 3 litres per day to stay healthy however, from looking at the resultd Elliot got I can see straight away that he does not drink enough water because on his questionnaire he ticked the box that says 0-1L of water per day. If you dont drink water there are many effects that you can get from this such as:
- Headaches
- Muscle weakness
- Fatigue quicker
- Dizziness
- Lightheadness
Water is really important if you want to keep a healthy lifestyle because if you dont you will have the problems that I have listed above. All of that will happen to you if you dont atleast 1.5 - 3litres of water a day. Thats all it takes, just 1.5-3litres of water per day to avoid headaches, muscle weaknesses etc. If you are looking to working out and improve your lifestyle you have to start of with the basic such as drinking enough water daily. This is because can you imagine going to the gym and having very weak muscles, fatiguing really quickly, getting dizzy often, having a headache and being lightheaded just because you dont drink enough water? Gym would be a terrible experience for you. However, if you drink enough water you will be able to do all the exercises that you want to and start a healthy and active lifestyle. To improve all you have to do is set your self a reminder on your fridge to drink water or maybe have a grid for your drinking times and every time you drink a cup of water you tick of the cup and if you drink enough water you will be able to see this on the grid. Inactive Lifestyle
A active lifestyle is the key to have a healthy lifestyle because being active makes sure that your body functions properly, releases stress, boosts your self esteem etc. From looking at the health screening questionnaire I have noticed that Elliot's life style is inactive. This is a really serious area of improvement to make because being active is key to have a better and healthier life.
Their are many ways that you can make your lifestyle active e.g.:
- Exercise atleast 30 minutes daily
- Do exercises at home
- Join a sports club or after school sports club
- Go for a jog
- Start skipping
- Cycling
- Join a gym
If for any reason you dont have access to a gym, a bike, a skipping rope, a club close to home etc then you cant just say that you wont exercise and give up because what you can do is do exercises at home to keep yourself active. Home exercise's are really helpful and the maina advantage of doing home exercises is that you dont need any equipement. All you need for home exercises is your body and a free space to be able to do the exercises. Here is a list of exercises that you can do at home:
- Abdominal crunches (abdominals)
- Leg raises (for lower abs)
- Press ups
- Tricep dips
- Squats
- Calf raises
- Lunges
Check out these websites to find out more exercises to do at home!
Unhealthy Diet
A healthy diet is really important for you because it allows you to maintain a good health level and also a sensible body weight. However, you need to remember that no single food will provide you with all the nutrients to allow your body to function properly. A balanced diet will contain proteins, fats, carbohydrates, fibers from fresh fruit and vegetables, vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, amino acids and also drinking water. 
If you do not eat enough of each food group then their would be many consequences for it such as:
- Poor growth
- Poor developement
- Bad physical and mental health
- Infections
- Diseases
- You could even die if you lack many nutrients
However, if you have too much food and dont balance out your nutrients etc the consequences will be:
- Weight gain which can lead to obesity
- Insulin resistance
- Diabetes
- Heart conditions
- Diet related diseases
Look at the sites below. It will show you some tips and facts on healthy eating:
http://www.realtime.net/anr/10eattip.html
Stress can be caused by almost anything for example work, school, your job, worrying, health problems, being in fear, not sleeping enough etc.
For different injuries I think that their are different methods of improvement. For the upper back pain Elliot has told me that he has not yet been to a doctor to check it out which means that I should refer him to a appropriate place to get this checked out. A appropriate place to check for back pains would be at a osteopath. To get this area improved is very important because for example if I just let Elliot do a exercise with heavy weights and his back got damaged I would be responsible for his health. Its the same as for the sprained ankle because if I let him do it without examining what's wrong with his ankle then he could get hurt if he is for example doing cardio exercises on the treadmill. To improve his sprained ankle I would recommend him to use the r.i.c.e method which stands for rest, ice, compression, elevation it would usually help his ankle to heal quicker depending on the seriousness of the injury.
High blood pressure:
Stress Level
Another thing that I have noticed when going through Elliot's health screening questionnaire is that he ticked the box which said medium level of stress. I think that stress is a really important aspect of your self to look at as it affects you in many ways if you are stressed too much. When you are stressed you can have the following:
- Health problems e.g. headaches, digestion problems, heart diseases, high blood pressure.
- Your looks can be affected by stress because you might not be getting enough sleep!
- Your productivity can be affected also because when you are stressed you will not be able to focus as much as you would want to.
- Your mood will change to being unhappy if you are stressed. Being unhappy can affect your whole life even your social life.
Stress can be caused by almost anything for example work, school, your job, worrying, health problems, being in fear, not sleeping enough etc. There are 5 main points that will help you fight stress!
- Get support.. Talk to someone e.g. friend or family!
- Don't freak out! stress can be temporary
- Don't blame your self for anything!
- Try to at least solve the problem
- Try to stay positive!no matter what.
You might think that at first these points don't help however, try them more than once and you will start seeing improvements in your stress level. The video below will show you a exercise that you can do at home to relief stress.
Medical History
Looking at Elliot's medical history I have noticed few problems that he has and these problems should be improved as soon as possible to make the training more effective. Elliot's medical history problems are:
- Upper back pain
- High blood pressure
- Sprained ankle
For different injuries I think that their are different methods of improvement. For the upper back pain Elliot has told me that he has not yet been to a doctor to check it out which means that I should refer him to a appropriate place to get this checked out. A appropriate place to check for back pains would be at a osteopath. To get this area improved is very important because for example if I just let Elliot do a exercise with heavy weights and his back got damaged I would be responsible for his health. Its the same as for the sprained ankle because if I let him do it without examining what's wrong with his ankle then he could get hurt if he is for example doing cardio exercises on the treadmill. To improve his sprained ankle I would recommend him to use the r.i.c.e method which stands for rest, ice, compression, elevation it would usually help his ankle to heal quicker depending on the seriousness of the injury.High blood pressure:
Moving onto another area of improvement which is his high blood pressure.His high blood pressure was SYS:159 DIA:172. A normal blood pressure should be around SYS:120 DIA:80. High blood pressure can be caused by:
High blood pressure is really easy to prevent because all you have to do is start to exercise more, eating less salty food, not smoking, not drinking a lot etc. Doing at least 20-30 minutes each day will give you enough exercise per week. If you want to know more about exercises you can do at home look at the section above 'Inactive lifestyle'.
- High amount of salt in your food
- Lack of exercise
- Being overweight
- Smoking
- Drinking large amounts of alcohol
- Stress
High blood pressure is really easy to prevent because all you have to do is start to exercise more, eating less salty food, not smoking, not drinking a lot etc. Doing at least 20-30 minutes each day will give you enough exercise per week. If you want to know more about exercises you can do at home look at the section above 'Inactive lifestyle'.Strengths!
Even though Elliot has many weaknesses he still has few strengths. These strengths are:
- He doesn't smoke!
- He doesn't drink!
- His body fat percentage is good for the training programme!
Smoking:
There are many good things about not smoking such as:
- Younger looking skin
- Whiter teeth
- Healthy and functional respiratory system
- Less stress
- More energy
- And more!
If Elliot smoked his respiratory system would be really bad which would mean that he wouldn't be able to breathe properly. This would then mean that he would fatigue a lot quicker and would not be able to finish most exercises.Alcohol:
Elliot also doesn't drink alcohol which is a really big strength because if you drink alcohol there are many effects of it such as:
- Brain damage
- Cancer
- Heart and circulation problems
- Lung problems
- Liver problems
- Alcohol effects the income of calcium which effects the strength of your bones
- And many more
Not drinking alcohol will keep you healthy and allow you to live a healthy and active life style. If you have lung or heart problems then this would effect you a lot during exercise as you would fatigue quicker.
Body fat percentage is good:
Elliot's body fat percentage is good to because from looking at the health screening questionnaire I could see that his percentage was 6.6% and his target is to become more toned. With a low body fat percentage it will be easier to get toned for Elliot which means that he already has an advantage because if he was for example obese and his body fat percentage was 19% then this would mean that he would have to take way longer to become toned.