3 Health Assessments to Improve Client Health
1. Heart Rate Test (Target: ≤60 BPM)
Note the client's resting heart rate by measuring the pulse at the wrist after 5+ minutes of quiet rest. A rate at or below 60 BPM reflects good cardiovascular conditioning. Elevated resting heart rate is commonly associated with poor aerobic conditioning or inadequate diet. Retest every 4–6 weeks.
2. Sleep Quality Assessment
We have already stated the incredible value of sleep. Score each question Yes or No:
- Consistent sleep and wake time — Yes/No
- Trouble falling asleep typically — Yes/No
- Sleep 7 hours/night — Yes/No
- Do you wake up rested and energised — Yes/No
- Drink alcohol before bed — Yes/No
- Eat within 2 hours of bedtime — Yes/No
- Do you need regular naps to catch up on sleep — Yes/No
The target is "Yes" for the first four and "No" for the last three.
3. Breath Hold Test (Target: ≥30 Seconds)
Another important test — how long a person can hold their breath after a normal exhale. Instructions:
A client scoring well below 30 seconds is not necessarily unfit in the conventional sense — this test measures CO2 tolerance and nervous system calmness rather than cardiovascular fitness directly, and even strong athletes can score poorly here if they are chronically stressed or habitual mouth-breathers. Retesting this alongside the breathwork drills from Chapter 11 over several weeks is a simple way to show a client tangible proof that their nervous system is calming down.
- Take a normal breath in through your nose and pinch your nostrils closed.
- Exhale all the air from your lungs that you can.
- Hold your breath with empty lungs and start the timer.
- Continue until you feel the strong need to breathe in.
- Stop the timer and record your breath hold time.
Anything above 30 seconds is acceptable. Test every few weeks to see if there is improvement.
Recommended Resources
The materials below go considerably deeper into the science underlying each topic in this manual — useful once a coach is comfortable with the practical skills and wants to understand the research behind them.
Certifications
- NASM Certified Personal Trainer (CPT)
- NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS)
- ACE Certified Personal Trainer
- CHEK Holistic Lifestyle Coach (HLC)
Key Texts
- Supertraining — Mel Siff & Yuri Verkhoshansky
- Science and Practice of Strength Training — Vladimir Zatsiorsky
- The Oxygen Advantage — Patrick McKeown (breathing)
- Explain Pain — David Butler & Lorimer Moseley (pain science)
- How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy — Paul Chek (holistic health)
Online Resources
- NSCA.com — research and professional development
- PubMed.gov — peer-reviewed exercise science
- GregNuckols.com — strength training research review
- LivingFoundations.com — author's coaching practice
Thank you for investing your time in this resource. The principles on these pages are only as valuable as the practice that follows. Go coach. Make mistakes. Learn. Refine. Your clients' results are the measure of everything.
— KC Jugran, Living Foundations