By William Wright
NYC Personal Trainer & Group Fitness Instructor

Assessing yourself is key to building the components of your program design. To progress in any fitness goal you must first make sure your muscles are working efficiently. You’re only as strong as your weakest link. It is important to understand and process your weak points in order to achieve optimal success in your personal fitness goals.

To identify your weak and strong points you must first assess yourself or get the professional assistance of a personal trainer. (like me!) Its time to create a baseline or starting point! There are sooo many fitness assessments out there to choose from but only two major types…Performance or Functional based..

Performance based assessments are based on ones overall abilities. ex how many push ups you can do in a minute or how fast you can run a mile. Functional based assessments are based on kinesiology. (the way the body moves and how the muscles work) To make it easier to understand: If you can’t squat correctly what makes you think your run or spin are efficient?

Muscle moves joints. Any weak or inefficient movements will create imbalances that don’t allow your body to work at optimal performance, taking away from your workouts or training programs and leading to injuries. Both assessments should be done and progression tracked.

Note: let’s not forget it’s still important to have an updated health screening.