Health Fitness Instructor's Handbook

For years the Health Fitness Instructor’s Handbook has been the standard by which texts on fitness testing and prescription have been judged. Now with the introduction of this updated and expanded third edition, the book sets an even higher level of excellence.

Health Fitness Instructor’s Handbook is the most comprehensive and up-to-date book available for health and fitness professionals who want to learn about the latest advances in physical fitness. That’s why more than 150 colleges and universities have adopted the book for course use and why it has been used as a text in ACSM

Health/Fitness Instructor workshops since 1986.

This new edition has been updated according to 1995 ACSM objectives for Health/Fitness Instructor and Exercise Leader certifications and the Surgeon General’s Report on Physical Activity and Health. Plus, the text provides the latest information on the fundamentals of fitness, exercise physiology, and biomechanics, as well as guidelines for developing safe fitness programs.

Respected exercise scientists Howley and Franks have included the following features in this improved third edition:

• New organization, with a heavier focus on exercise prescription

• New chapters on metabolic costs of physical activity, weight management, and exercise prescription for special populations

• List of objectives to open each chapter

• In-text reviews linked to learning objectives

• Case studies for every chapter

• Suggested readings

Part I of Health Fitness Instructor’s Handbook describes the areas of knowledge and competence needed by a health fitness instructor, the relationship of physical activity to optimal health, and how to evaluate the health status of fitness participants.

Part II provides the scientific foundations for understanding the structure and function of the human body, the measurement and evaluation of fitness, and the determination of energy expenditure.

Part III discusses the basic elements of nutrition, methods of body composition assessment, and the importance of a healthy body weight, including ways to achieve it.

Part IV describes the components of physical fitness and assessment techniques for cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength and endurance, and flexibility and low-back function.

Part V presents guidelines and recommendations for exercise programming for each of the fitness components. The section also explains the importance of exercise leadership, including examples for a variety of fitness activities, and provides recommended exercise modifications for special populations.

Finally, Part VI covers a range of considerations for safe and effective exercise programming. The section describes the relationship between personality and fitness behavior, provides the framework for helping individuals adopt and maintain healthy behaviors, explains ways to prevent and treat injuries, reviews basic information about the electrocardiogram and common medications as they relate to exercise, and describes program administration.

Instructor Guide Software

The Instructor Guide Software for Health Fitness Instructor’s Handbook (Third Edition) contains sample lecture outlines, along with student learning activities, for each of the 20 topics typically covered in university health fitness instructor courses. Included is a list of different technologies teachers can use to prepare for the classroom.