CHAMP Interest Form
To make an appointment with a CHAMP consultant, complete the CHAMP interest form below. Prior to your initial visit, you must complete a Medical History Form and read the Pre-test Preparation Instructions. Send your completed Medical History Form to champ@miami.edu.
About CHAMP
The free CHAMP assessment consists of a simple battery of tests that evaluates your current fitness level and compares your results to national data. Regular fitness assessments allow you to track your progress and fine-tune your exercise program for guaranteed results.
After each assessment, a CHAMP exercise professional will review your results, and go over them with you via a Zoom call. Here, they will go over any areas of improvements and help you set reasonable fitness goals. If deemed applicable, some students will be able to participate in weekly group trainings to target areas of improvement.
The CHAMP program is free to all University of Miami students courtesy of an endowment provided by Patti and Allan Herbert.
Fitness Assessments
Each CHAMP appointment lasts about 45-60 minutes and measures the following components of fitness:
Resting and Anthropometric Measures
Resting measures can predict cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. This is easily done by testing your resting blood pressure and heart rate. Anthropometric measurements are specific to the body. This is done by taking the circumference of the waist and determining body fat percentage via a 3-site test.
Cardiovascular Fitness
Cardiovascular fitness is how well your cardiovascular system is able to supply oxygen and blood to the working tissues of the body. The greater your cardiovascular fitness is, the greater your ability to perform moderate to vigorous activities for longer periods of time.
Tests Performed: Bruce Test
What it targets: Submaximal aerobic work
How to do it: The Bruce test is a submaximal cardiovascular test that is a multi 2-4 stage test with each stage lasting 3 minutes long. The test includes a warm-up of 1.7mph that will increase in speed and grade every 3 minutes. The test is completed when the subject reaches two stages in a pre-determined target heart rate zone. An estimated VO2max is generated from the subject’s resting heart rate, and heart rates generated from the stages in the test. The VO2max attained determines the subject’s cardiovascular fitness and is compared to normative data.
Muscular Fitness
Muscular fitness is used to describe the combination of muscular strength and muscular endurance. Muscular fitness is important because it improves or maintains fat-free mass, musculotendinous integrity (which decreases risk of injury) and ability to perform activities of daily living.
Tests Performed: Hand grip dynamometry
What it targets: Full body strength
How to do it: The subject is given the hand grip dynamometer to hold at their side with the arm straight towards the floor. The subject inhales and on the exhale squeezes the grip as hard as they can before release. The effort is recorded in pounds/kilograms and repeated on each hand 3 separate times. The score is based on the best of all trials for each hand. Hand grip strength is relative to total body strength and used to determine and categorize overall strength for the gender and age of the individual.
Flexibility
Flexibility is the “pain-free” range of motion that you can achieve around a joint through a particular movement. Adequate flexibility is essential to perform activities of daily living. Poor flexibility in the hamstrings and lower back is often associated with low-back pain and possible injury.
Tests Performed: Sit and reach
What is Targets: Flexibility
How to do it: The subject takes their shoes off and sits on the floor with their legs straight and feet placed on the back of the sit-and-reach box. With hands stacked and straight in front of the body over the legs, the subject will hinge at the hips and reach as far forward as possible without bending at the knees. The test is completed 3 times and the best of all trials is compared to normative values.
