Physiology Assignment: Fitness Assessment & Anthropometry

Question

Task:

What am I required to do in this physiology assignment?

Following completion of BMI and VO2 max calculations from model data, you must prepare and submit a word processed 1000-word report (excluding references and appendices). The report should contain the sections outlined below. A guide is given to the approximate number of words to be included in each section.

Sections to be included in report:

Introduction

Introduce the relationship between the cardiac system and exercise and the concept of anthropometry. You must make sure you reference this section.

Aims and objectives

State the aims and objectives of the experiment.

Methods

Using the protocol summarize the methods that were used to generate the model data. Be as concise as possible, but give sufficient detail to allow someone to repeat the study. Your text should be in the form of a paragraph in the same way that methods are reported in published scientific papers.

Results
Present the BMI and VO2 max values in table form together with the other model data. Use a table similar to that in the protocol. The table must be labeled and contain a title. Provide workings for all calculations and make sure measurements contain units. Remember to clearly indicate which method you used to calculate VO2 max. Calculate the mean values for the group of 7 students and include these values in your table. Do not forget to describe “your” results and the group results in words and refer to your table in the main text.

Discussion
Discuss your results and, if any, the relationship between the anthropometric values and fitness status. To help you with this, you should carry out the tasks and consider the question listed below. Describe your findings to the tasks and your answers to your questions in this section.

a) compare “your” values to the mean group values

b) compare the rating related to your VO2 value with the health fitness status suggested by your BMI. Using this data is BMI a reliable estimation of your health status?

c) does your arm span relate to your height? What about the rest of the group? From this data is there a relationship between arm span and height?

d) does your arm span relate to your fitness? What about the rest of the group? From this data is there a relationship between arm span and fitness?

e) why do subjects have different heart rates and different VO2 when doing exactly the same amount of work?

f) why would having a high maximal oxygen uptake be beneficial?

g) what considerations might you have to make when predicting maximal oxygen uptake from heart rate in an elderly population?

h) what do you think about the methods you have used to determine arm span, BMI and VO2 max. Do they have any limitations?

Conclusion
By reflecting on your results and comparisons, decide if arm span is a good predictor of height and fitness and if BMI and VO2 max are good predictors of health and fitness.

Answer

Introduction to physiology assignment
Maximum aerobic capacity/power or VO2max is defined as the maximum attainable rate of aerobic metabolism during the performance of a dynamic physical exercise or work that exhaust the subject within 5 to 10 minutes. VO2max is considered by many exercise scientists to be the most valid measurement of cardiovascular/cardio-respiratory endurance fitness. The physiological factors that influence VO2max include the following:

• the maximum ability of the cardio-respiratory system to deliver oxygen to the contracting muscle; and
• the muscle’s ability to take up the oxygen and produce adenosine tri-phosphate (ATP) aerobically (Jäger et al. 2016)

Measurements of VO2max are expressed in both absolute and relative terms.

Anthropometry refers to human body measurements with which the equipment designers are mainly concerned. Such measurements include body dimensions, their strength, speed and range of body motions. The two kinds of body dimensions are static and dynamic. Static body dimensions are the dimensions of human body in rigid, standardized position that are easily obtained and readily applied to equipment design. Contrarily, dynamic body dimensions are the measurements of the human body while at work or in motion. They are more complex and difficult to measure. In past years, biologists have measured an enormous range of body dimensions. Anthropometry and anthropometric measurements are fundamental parts of the studies of human adaptability (Zakaria and Gupta 2019). Amongst these, the body mass index (BMI) is commonly used as a reliable indicator of a person’s leanness.

Aims and objectives
The assignment aims to determine if

a) arm span is an indicator of height and fitness

b) BMI and VO2max are good predictors of health and fitness

The objectives are as follows:

1. computations of BMI and VO2max
2. comparisons of the anthropometric measurements with predictors of health and fitness
3. determine whether BMI and VO2max are good predictors of health and fitness

Methods
Students were categorized into groups of 7 students with stepping platform for each group. Each group carried out the different tests and measurements in their own time. Every student completed each of the following tests:

Step Test for heart response through stepping up and down a 42 cm high bench for 3 minutes maintaining the cadence stepping of 120 steps per minute through metronome for male students. After completion of test, step test pulse rate was measured by counting the number of heart beats for 30 seconds duration and absolute value for VO2max in males was computed through the following equation 111.33-(0.42×pulse rate in beats per minute) ml/min while the relative value was measured through Nomogram method (Koju et al. 2019; Badami and Baragundi 2017).
1. Weight and height measurements for determination of BMI were done using a scale and stadiometer respectively. Calculation is done through equation:
   BMI (kg/m2) = (Body mass in kg) / (Height in m)2 (Basu et al. 2019)
2. Arm span measurement was done by multiplying the half arm span by 2 that in turn was measured by marking the area from the tip of middle finger to the sterna notch with a measuring tape (Popovi? 2018).

Results

Table1: VO2max and BMI in the studied population

STPR= Step Test Pulse Rate, BMI= Body Mass Index, VO2max expressed in absolute terms as measured by Step test method

Table 1 represents the computed VO2max and BMI values for the person as well as the group comprising of 7 subjects. All the values concerning the group have been expressed as Mean.

Discussion

a) The values of Weight, VO2max and BMI were less while that of Height, Arm span and STPR were high in case of mine data when compared to the mean group values.

b) In comparison of mine data with that of the group mean values, the VO2max and BMI were found to be directly related. Both these values were found to be higher or lower in relation to one another. However, a higher BMI, beyond the normal range is indicative of the presence of overweight/obesity in the individual while a higher VO2max depicts better cardiovascular fitness in him. Nevertheless, both are contradictory to each other in this case as in mine data less BMI corresponds to less VO2max while for the group mean values, a higher BMI corresponds to higher VO2max. As per the BMI data in mine case, the value (21.5) belong to the normal range (BMI 18.5-25) and therefore may be indicative of a good health, while the lower value of VO2max contradicts this claim (vide Appendix 1). Therefore, BMI alone is not a reliable estimation of my health status.

c) In case of mine data, the arm span and height are found to be closely related differing only by 2 units, while for the rest of the group the same may be applicable. Thus, arm span and height are found to be closely related, and they may be used interchangeably as a measure of one’s body height.

d) Arm span and fitness status as represented through VO2max values when compared between mine data and group data is found to be inversely related i.e., the higher the arm span the less is the VO2max and vice versa.

e) Subjects have different heart rates and different VO2max while doing exactly the same amount of work because the recovery cardiac cost to exercise varies in individuals thereby reflecting the cardiac efficiency of the concerned subject (Davies et al. 1972).

f) Having a high maximal oxygen uptake would be beneficial as it allows for greater ability of the cardio-respiratory system in transporting oxygen to the contracting muscle thereby allowing for greater oxygen utilization by these muscles in generating ATP through aerobic metabolism (Wen et al. 2019).

g) In an elderly population, when predicting maximal oxygen uptake from heart rate, the load and duration of exercise needs to be considered apart from the maximum heart rate response (Huggett et al. 2005).

h) The method used for measuring VO2max seems to have a limitation owing to the fact that the biomechanical characteristics vary between individuals i.e., taller persons tend to possess an advantage over the shorter ones (Bennett et al. 2016).

Conclusion
Based on the observations obtained from computing the data for VO2max and BMI and comparing them, it may be said that arm span is a good predictor of height but not fitness. Conversely, both BMI and VO2max may be considered as good predictors of health and fitness.

References
Badami, S. and Baragundi, M.C., 2017. The Comparative Study of Aerobic Capacity between Physically Trained and Untrained Subjects Using Astrand Ryhming Step Test. International Journal of Physiology, 5(2), pp.252-255.

Basu, S., Roy, A. S., Dalui, R., & Bandyopadhyay, A. (2019). Physical Fitness of Basketball and Volleyball Players of Kolkata, India. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Physiology, 6(4), 111-117.

Bennett, H., Parfitt, G., Davison, K. and Eston, R., 2016. Validity of submaximal step tests to estimate maximal oxygen uptake in healthy adults. Sports medicine, 46(5), pp.737-750.

Davies, C.T., Di Prampero, P.E. and Cerretelli, P., 1972. Kinetics of cardiac output and respiratory gas exchange during exercise and recovery. Journal of applied physiology, 32(5), pp.618-625.

Huggett, D.L., Connelly, D.M. and Overend, T.J., 2005. Maximal aerobic capacity testing of older adults: a critical review. Physiology assignment The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, 60(1), pp.57-66.

Jäger, J.M., Kurz, J. and Müller, H., 2016. Predicting maximum speed in a 4x1000 m Field Test based on estimated VO2max values from Shuttle Run Test and Queens College Step Test. In Proceedings dvs-Workshop Modelling in Endurance Sports (pp. 20-24).

Koju, B., Chaudhary, S., Shrestha, A. and Joshi, L.R., 2019. Cardio-respiratory Fitness in Medical Students by Queen’s College Step Test: A Cross-sectional Study. Journal of Lumbini Medical College, 7(1), pp.29-33.

Popovi?, S., 2018. Arm-span measurement as an alternative estimation of true height in Montenegrin young adults of both sexes: A national survey. Anthropological Notebooks, 24(1).

Wen, D., Utesch, T., Wu, J., Robertson, S., Liu, J., Hu, G. and Chen, H., 2019. Effects of different protocols of high intensity interval training for VO2max improvements in adults: A meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. Journal of science and medicine in sport, 22(8), pp.941-947.

Zakaria, N. and Gupta, D. eds., 2019. Anthropometry, apparel sizing and design. Woodhead Publishing.